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GroundUp reports that more than 150 farm workers and supporters – mostly women – braved gale force winds and heavy rainfall on Tuesday to march through the streets of Cape Town calling for a ban on harmful pesticides.
Last month, the farm workers led by the organisation Women on Farms, picketed outside Parliament, demanding transparency and consultation over regulations on the use of pesticides. On Tuesday, they marched to the German Consulate-General in District Six to demand an end to the import of harmful pesticides from German companies. Lebo Ramafoko, Executive Director of Oxfam SA said that many farm workers were still forced to use “highly hazardous pesticides”, which were banned in Europe, “but Germany continues to export them into South Africa.” In 2019, the Women on Farms Project launched their ‘Double Standards Pesticides‘ campaign, calling on the SA government to ban 67 pesticides. These pesticides are already banned in the European Union. The campaign is a partnership between Women on Farms Project, Oxfam SA and Oxfam Germany. Dina Ndeleni, a farm worker from De Doorns, who travelled to Cape Town for the march, said she suffered from respiratory issues and used an inhaler regularly. “Our lives are just as important as those people in Europe,” said farmworker Jo-ann Johannes from Simondium. The group handed over a memorandum of demands to a representative from the German Consulate-General.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ashraf Hendricks at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page