“I don’t think we [rural women] were on the agenda,” said Mawubuye Land Rights Movement activist Denia Jansen, referring to the devastating impact that the Covid-19 lockdown has had on South Africans. 

A key challenge was the limited access to institutional support during lockdown, she said, sharing a view that emerged in a report released during 16 Days of Activism by the Women on Farms Project (WFP).

Jansen has her ears close to the ground on matters related to gender-based violence in farming communities. Just last Sunday evening she tried to assist a woman who had been raped in McGregor in the Langeberg Municipality in the Western Cape, but the police could not assist fully. 

Jansen said there were major issues with governmental support. 

“It’s also how women are treated by police in the platteland [farming areas]. I can give you one example of Sunday evening when we had a case of a woman who was raped. We took her to the police station – there was no [police]woman who gave attention to the victim. We asked where the keys were for the trauma room, because naturally the woman had to wait in the trauma room.

“The officer told me there was no key available – the keys were in Worcester. I thought, how can this be?” 

According to a Google Map distance calculator, the distance between the two police stations is 64km – a 45-minute drive.

This lack of access to transport and long distances between police stations are among several issues pointed out by the WFP. 

At an event in Stellenbosch to commemorate 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, the group released a report titled “The Economic Drivers of Gender-Based Violence: Farmwomen in the Wellington Area and their experiences of GBV during the Covid-19 National Lockdown in South Africa”. 

The report, researched through interviews and focus groups of 51 women, was done to highlight the gender-based violence (GBV) experience of women who live and work on farms in Wellington, Western Cape. Wellington is a largely agricultural area, which produces wine and fruit. 

Jansen said GBV in farming communities had become so rife that another organisation she works with, the Rural Women’s Assembly, had started an SMS service where women on farms could report incidents and reach out for support on gender-based violence. 

Jansen questioned whether the government had thought about women when drafting the lockdown regulations. 

“They didn’t think good enough about what will happen to women who stay with their male partners who abuse them.”

A search through websites and documentation from the South African Police Service on statistics of GBV in farming communities did not uncover anything other than a reference, in 2020, to 49 murders on farms and smallholdings that occurred in the 2018/2019 financial year. 

Jansen said it was very difficult to find statistics, and women often faced difficulties in reporting GBV, with challenges that included the unavailability of public transport in late afternoons to get to police stations.

“When we work in communities, especially with women who live on farms  and live in far-flung areas, it’s difficult to report cases,” she told Daily Maverick about working in areas such as McGregor.

“In the farming areas where we live, on farms, there isn’t a lot of public transport [to get to police stations]”. This was especially true in afternoons. 

At night, however, Jansen said women felt, “Ag, it’s not worth the trouble to report a case, because tomorrow all the evidence will be gone, and so women usually give up in reporting these cases.” 

Other issues reported to Jansen include a lack of cellphone reception in certain areas as well as the costs of data to call for assistance. 

The issues Jansen highlights are similar to the ones underscored by the WFP in its report. 

“Because many farm women live more than 10km from the nearest town, often on farms with access control at the gates, [this] limits their access to services such as police and courts,” read the report, authored by Rebecca Mort and Celeste Fortuin of the WFP’s Health and Empowerment Programme. 

In their research, they point to specific drivers of gender-based violence: substance abuse, gendered division of labour and insecure tenure security for women. 

On labour during the lockdown, the WFP found more women are likely to be employed as seasonal workers than men, who received permanent positions on farms. In addition, women were excluded from higher-paid positions such as tractor drivers, which often meant women were paid less than men. Only 50% of the women who were interviewed continued to work during the lockdown, while 67% of men continued working.

“This deepens farm women’s financial dependence on their male partners and, because of women’s primary responsibility for the care of children, discourages them from leaving abusive husbands. These patriarchal notions of the value of men and women’s work, and the resulting unequal hierarchies of power, continue to be reinforced by farmers,” read the report.

According to the report, “50% of [those] interviewed had little to no income during the Covid-19 lockdown”. Most women who were unemployed during the lockdown were wholly dependent on social grants or their partner’s wages. 

The WFP pointed out that a lack of tenure security leaves women vulnerable. Thirty-three percent of respondents said they lived in houses that were in their partner’s name. Only 12% of women had housing contracts in their own names, and 20% of women stayed in homes where housing contracts were in their parents’ names.

When housing contracts are in the name of male permanent farmworkers, this leaves women dependent on men for access to housing on farms, read the report. Because women don’t have independent tenure rights combined with responsibilities as being primary child caregivers, women are unable to leave abusive relationships as they have no place to go. 

“In the focus groups, women also reported that men are aware of the power this gives them and explicitly point this out to women,” said the report. 

Another issue highlighted was GBV spurred by the ban on the sale of alcohol. 

“A major driver of gender-based violence on farms, that affects married women, women living with their partners and young girls [is] that of alcohol and other substance abuse,” reads the report. During the ban, men started to use drugs in place of alcohol and others made their own alcohol from fruits, according to the report. 

What are some of the solutions? 

Jansen says a start would be for women to speak about their experience through organisations that help women. 

“We should never be silent about abuse,” she said, adding that support was needed for women who wanted to leave abusive relationships. 

In the report, the WFP points out the need for “radical systemic change” at all levels. Transformation of the agrarian sector should be informed by farm women, “who face oppression from multiple intersections of classed, racialised and gendered power systems”. 

These changes include:

On land and tenure: The WFP says women need independent access to land, land rights and tenure security, along with constant water and electricity supply. “We constantly tell the government: the moment you give a woman a piece of land she can make a living. We’re asking the government to give each woman one hectare of land and she can start planting. What she produces, she can sell, and she can share; that’s how you make women independent,” said Jansen .

On income: The WFP points to women needing access to independent and sustainable income sources, dignified and decent employment and a living wage. In addition, women in the commercial agricultural sector need stronger labour rights. The report states that a Basic Income Grant is needed, which will “ensure regular, independent income to farm women, enhance their financial autonomy and increase their decision-making about household finances”. 

Psycho-social support: Women need psycho-social support not only for themselves to reclaim their agency, but also for their partners who have experienced trauma in their past, which has never been addressed before. The WFP suggests the employment of more social workers, counsellors and psychologists in rural towns. 

Institutional justice support: Farm women must be at the centre of any conceptualisation of gender-based violence and femicide interventions, which must consider the specifics of system failures experienced by farm women. Jansen questions why there are no shelters for women in farming areas and points to the case on Sunday night: “I didn’t know where to take her”. She asked that more support be given to the creation of shelters in farming areas. 

Resource allocation: New policies and plans such as the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide 2020-2030 must be designed with budgets and timelines, and need to include prevention and response interventions.

“We are the pillars of the community and as soon as pillars of communities become weak, then the whole community is in crisis,” said Jansen. DM

*The Women on Farms Project intends to release a final version of the report in 2021.