National Farm Dweller Workshop, 11th-12th December 2006, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal
Despite legislation being in place to address the rights of people living on farms, no significant redress or transformation has taken place. Farm dwellers continue to find themselves living in insecurity and poverty, being threatened with eviction and having to negotiate around their families’ rights to live and survive.
They are largely untouched by Government social and economic development programmes, and they remain outside of the loop of access to fundamental human rights afforded to citizens by the Constitution.
A National workshop to discuss farm dweller issues was held on the 11th and 12th December 2006, in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal.
Workshop delegates speak out (Pictures: John Robinson)
Farm dwellers from all nine provinces came together to talk about issues of common concern and to further formulate a national farm dweller position on:
their status in South African society,
real transformation options for the agricultural sector, and
issues of access to the justice system, continued insecure tenure, evictions and agrarian reform
Participants included farm dweller representatives coming from all nine provinces, NGO representatives from each province and national NGOs and organisations supporting and working with farm dweller issues.
The workshop was jointly hosted by eight Provincially based NGOs (NKUZI, ANCRA, SPP, SCLC, FSRDA,LAMOSA, TRAC MP) and co-ordinated by the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA).
