GroundUp reports that over 200 farm women braved the rain and cold to march to Parliament in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The protest, under the banner of the Women on Farms Project (WFP), was over a decision by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to renege on a promise to phase out harmful pesticides by June 2024. Police threw stun grenades at the women after they broke past the police line at the gates of Parliament. Using their shields, police pushed the women back. In April 2022, the department gave notice that certain pesticides, including chemicals linked to cancer, genetic mutations, and harmful to reproductive health, would be phased out and banned by this month. But the department recently gazetted guidelines for applicants to apply for “derogation” of a “substance of concern” and be granted an exemption to use the pesticides. In its memorandum, the WFP said the guidelines did not provide the criteria the department’s registrar would use to decide on the registration of pesticides; that there was an “unreasonably short” period of 30 days to provide any comments on applications; and that there was no appeals process for interested parties, such as farm workers, after a decision was made. “This move allows rich, resourced, and powerful corporations to undermine the safety and well-being of our agricultural workers and communities,” the memorandum reads. It demanded that pesticides already banned in the EU also be banned in SA, and that the registrar should meet with the workers urgently. The farm women said the new regulations were made without consulting them and that they “feel like their health interests have been totally overlooked”. No one received the memorandum at Parliament.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liezl Human at GroundUp

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