Shaun Byneveldt’s opinionista is clearly a piece of pre-election politicking on behalf of the ANC, which only seems to show any sort of interest in farmworkers’ rights in the run-up to an election.

A case in point is the promise by then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to place a moratorium on all farm evictions in the country until such time as we can come up with a workable way forward-also, conveniently in the run-up to an election.

This has unfortunately never materialised.

However, the plight of farmworkers should not be one that is politicised. They are among the most vulnerable in our society.

As a country, we need to develop a new way of thinking to ensure that the rights of farmworkers are upheld, while at the same time protecting the agricultural sector which is responsible for a large contribution to the province’s economy and the creation of over 300,000 direct and indirect jobs in the agricultural and agri-processing industries.

Byneveldt is correct in saying that the Western Cape plays a significant role in “setting the standard for the well-being of farmworkers” and this is a task the Western Cape Department of Agriculture has taken seriously.

The department is the first and only department to have conducted a farm worker census. This census, initiated after the 2014 agri-worker strikes, set out to not only count agri-workers in the province, but to understand the way they, and residents of rural areas live. The results of this census have been used to inform service delivery projects across the Western Cape government.

Additionally, we established a support unit, which helps agri-workers in distress. Over the years, they have assisted in cases of wrongful termination of their services, through disasters such as the drought and avian influenza, and they play an important role in connecting agri-workers to government services, especially in cases of evictions.

Mr Byneveldt either does not understand the legislation or is purposefully obscuring the truth when he says that “while some aspects of the lives of this community are governed by national laws, the majority of the day-to-day delivery is located at the provincial and local government level”.

The fact of the matter is that the Establishment of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) and its implementation are the mandate of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. Despite this, the Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape has developed a relationship with the provincial representatives of the DRDLR, in order to ensure that where evictions do happen, they happen legally, and post-eviction support is offered to families.

Post-eviction support is provided by municipalities, but in some cases, for whatever reasons, is declined by the recipients.

The Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape has been engaging regularly with the Human Rights Commission in a bid to ensure that agri-worker rights are upheld and protected in the province.

The issue of security of tenure and farmworker housing is one we all need to engage with to find the best solutions. Currently, the South African agricultural sector is in the unique position of providing housing even to farmworkers who no longer work on the farm.

While we are not yet close to a solution, many of our municipalities are working hard to ensure that they are addressing issues relating to agri-workers.

In Drakenstein municipality, which is one of the municipalities with the highest number of agricultural workers, several steps have already been taken:

• A farm subsidy scheme was established to subsidise farm owners to provide basic sanitation services for their workers’ housing.
• The municipality has utilised R20-million of its own funding, in addition to grant funding, to ensure the electrification of informal settlements to ensure that services are available.
• The catalytic housing project Vlakkeland will establish 2,556 houses. In the first phase, 755 Breaking New Ground houses, and 187 Gap houses will be delivered.
• The municipality has allocated 20% if its allocation for housing to the disabled, elderly and to rural residents in a bid to provide housing to vulnerable groupings.

The answer to the issues which plague farmworkers in this province does not lie in finger-pointing and politicking. It requires us to take stock of where we are, and to work collaboratively across all three spheres of government to come up with innovative solutions. In the Western Cape, we’ve seen the power of this kind of collaboration and out-of-box thinking in our approach to land reform which has seen commodity groups, farmers, as well as the provincial and national government working together to ensure success. DM