Page 27 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

LAND RIGHTs sHOULD INcLUDe
an end to evictionS
FREDDIE KOOPMAN WAS ExPOSED TO FARMWORKERS BEING EVICTED FROM THEIR HOMES ON FARMS FROM AN EARLY AGE. HE WRITES THAT THE CURRENT LAWS GOVERNING EVICTIONS NEED TO CHANGE TO ENSURE FARM INHABITANTS HAVE MORE SECURITY OF TENURE.
I was born in a beautiful village called citrusdal which is in a valley surrounded by the swartberg and cederberg mountains.
During winter you will find the sweetest oranges here and nowhere else in the world. In spring, our town is covered by a blanket of flowers.
I grew up on a farm and was exposed to the injustices experienced by farm workers at an early age. commercial farmers dismissed farm workers left and right. Farm workers earn a wage of less than R50.00. They live in poverty and often go to bed without food and go to work on an empty stomach. Farm workers are regularly removed from farms. People are dropped off on the side of the road, their furniture is thrown off the vehicles and everything is lost in the process. To this day, farmworkers remain the most marginalised group in our society. There are about 20 000 farm workers who are vulnerable to farm evictions. This phenomenon is evident on every media stream. As a result of evictions, we see people who sit on the side of the road without food and the pain is clearly written on their faces. children hiccup as they cry. Rain worsens the circumstances because everything is wet and the people have no shelter.
My own experience as a child motivates me to empower farm workers and improve their circumstances. I received a postgraduate qualification, B.Comm (Law), and later joined the Advice Office. Recently we assisted a family who was dropped on the side of the road in the middle of the night by a farmer. In the morning, some passersby contacted us about their plight. We fetched the family with all their furniture and arranged for them to stay at the community hall. We also saw that they had food. We engaged with the farmer and explained the laws of the extension of security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (“esTA”), and he eventually agreed to fetch the family and return them to the farm.
We have been working with Tshintsha Amakhaya to work out strategies to stop farmworker evictions. I have also held several workshops explaining esTA in my community. We also explain ESTA to individuals who walk into our office. Even though it regulates eviction, it does not protect our people as it does not prevent evictions from happening. For this reason, I believe it must be expunged.
When he was Deputy President, President cyril Ramaphosa called a moratorium on farm evictions in 2014. since his inauguration as President we have engaged in conversation with him. The President committed himself to dealing with the issue himself. To date, nothing has happened to improve the situation. The purpose of the moratorium is to ensure that farm inhabitants are not evicted. ESTA must first be rewritten to make sure that farm inhabitants have a better outcome. Their living situation should have more certainty. Farm inhabitants need the opportunity to provide their input into changing the law. They need to have a say as they are the people most affected by eviction laws. This is the reality that I want to change.
Access to Justice
RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years
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Freddie koopMAn