What does the future hold for farmworkers in South Africa?

The National Conference on The Future of Farm Workers in South Africa takes place from 16–18 October 2019, at UWC.

It's estimated that there are currently around three-quarters of a million farmworkers in South Africa.

A number which, due to various factors, has fallen over the past 25 years, says University of the Western Cape (UWC) professor Ruth Hall.

She'll be sharing her expertise during the National Conference on The Future of Farm Workers in South Africa at UWC this week.

The conference will seek to ask the question: What does the future hold for farmworkers in South Africa?

The proportion of permanent versus seasonal (staff) has been inverted. So increasingly, not only are people challenged by being unemployed, but by having very seasonal wages and income.

Prof Ruth Hall, Researcher at Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies - University of the Western Cape

What we're seeing is not only a shrinking of this population of farmworkers, but also a lot of them being evicted or moving off and living in informal settlements around the farms or in the small farms.

Prof Ruth Hall, Researcher at Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies - University of the Western Cape

Our stats show that in the first ten years of democracy, 2.3 million people moved off farms and nearly a million of those were forceably evicted.

Prof Ruth Hall, Researcher at Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies - University of the Western Cape

Listen to the full interview below:

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