SEDIBENG. – “We have winter in October now, all because people are not taking care of planet earth.”
This was said by Manana Matima, the coordinator of the Women in Agricultural Rural Movement (WiARM) that supports women in agriculture. The organisation was started in Midvaal but has now spread all over Sedibeng.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Matima said that like any other farmer, black and white, women in agriculture need support to make it. She adds that with many of them being widows, male farmers of all colours try to take advantage of them.
“We are in a very difficult situation because male farmers, instead of helping us to make this country a better place, try to take advantage of us. Sometimes they go to the extent of even trying to get us to sell our land to them. We need the support of government, the Land Bank and all the stakeholders for us to make it. We are in this to make a livelihood for our children,” Matima said.
During the recent Heritage Day the women marched on the R59 and raised the message that:
“Land is food, Land is life”.
Matima said that our heritage does not end on Heritage Day because heritage is food, land and the environment.
“People should not underestimate the value of the land. We are from the soil, we grow from the soil and we eat from the soil,” Matima said, adding that community members can turn dumping sites into vegetable gardens that can, in turn, benefit the needy. “Climate change is a mess, we caused it. Now we must come up with solutions to make the environment better. Let us respect the land.”
