Submission to the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform on Land and Tenure Rights of for Farm Dwellers and Workers
14 March 2011

Introduction
The Surplus People Project (SPP) is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that facilitates pro poor agrarian transformation and food sovereignty in the Western and Northern Cape provinces. We also support and promote the implementation of agro ecology as an alternative to the dominant forms of production.  Thus SPP’s development goal is to realise pro poor agrarian transformation and food sovereignty to secure and improve rural livelihoods.
Our starting point is that farm workers and dwellers are the rightful owners of the land and have the right to live and work on the land, but most important to own the land. This should be the starting point of our discussion of land and tenure rights of farm dwellers and workers.
It is important to highlight that agrarian reform for food sovereignty is a basic human right of the rural and urban masses, which should form the cornerstone of transforming rural relations, the rural economy and broader societal change.
The problems and challenges faced by farm dwellers and workers are embedded in the neo liberal economic framework and market driven land reform policies of the current state. In our view, this economy is generating new forms of dispossession, displacements and human rights violations.  Scholars reminds us that “the legitimacy of the state franchise, and other civil and political rights enshrined in the constitution, exists alongside with the continual and extreme inequality and land is mere one of the indices of inequality”. Thus the rights enshrined in the constitution and other legislation to protect farm dwellers and workers is being undermined by the prevailing economic system. Moreover the legislative framework further solidifies land dispossession and power of agrarian capital.
The Surplus People Project welcomes the opportunity to present our views based on evidence on land and tenure rights for farm dwellers and workers.  Our submission builds on a number of submissions we have made over the past 10 years on the conditions of farm workers and dwellers.
Our submission will highlight the structural or systemic problems facing farm dwellers and workers. The limits of current and proposed legislation, particularly how it entrenches existing land inequality. We hope that the issues highlighted by our submission would be considered by the members of the portfolio committee.

Commercial Farming and the Agricultural Sector
Agriculture has gone through a thorough process of neo liberal reforms that rapidly changed the structure of the countryside. This process was in large measure precipitated by agricultural policy reform by the state further enabling this process. The current structure of agriculture and land ownership patterns in our view, enabled by a legislative framework are responsible for a myriad of problems faced by the farming workers and dwellers.  Thus, while land reform was being implemented, the state introduced policy measures that facilitated the restructuring of agriculture. Scholars and activists argue that the restructuring refers to the process of reorganisation of the relations of production and the distribution by the ruling classes in an attempt to make the existing social system more functional and efficient.
What are the main features of commercial agriculture in South Africa? Succintly it is production for markets, especially global markets, maximizing profits on invested capital and the employment of wage labour. Thus the profit motive is central to commercial agriculture wihtin South Africa. Land reform is being implemented without democratizing the countryside. It is our contention that most of the human and tenure rights violations are linked to the restructuring within agriculture. Moreover the lack of transformation in agriculture has further entrenched these unequal power relations.
In this regard we want to highlight two important points relevant to the agricultural sector: Firstly the increased concentration in the ownership of land. According to official data, farms have decreased from 120 000 farm units to approximately 35 000 units. In essence farm size have increased. This is direcly related to the concentration of land (farms) in the hands of a few private owners and agribusinesses.
Agricultural employment is the second feature directly related to the conditions of farm workers and dwellers. Employment on farms has become increasingly casualised over the past decade. Casual workers have been replacing permanent or regular workers at a rapid rate. Agricultural employment trends are directly related to the profit motive of commercial agriculture. This has also resulted in labour shedding. Liberal scholars and policy makers often argue that labour shedding and by implication displacement from farms, are related to labour and tenure legislation. Findings from research commisioned by SPP suggests that:
•	Farming for profit is leaving more people food insecure and depressing living standards of a section of the rural poor
•	Based on the average rate of profit calculations, commercial farming remains profitable for a small number of agribusiness
•	Wage rates in the agricultural sector are falling, while the composition in the agricultural work force is shifting towards casual or part time work in value added commodities.
•	The average rate of exploitation has intensified in the agricultural sector suggesting that higher profits are made on the backs of a small number of casual workers.
This is aptly captured by Professor Nik Vink (2008) of the University of Stellenbosch when he states that “despite an increase in real wages, the unit cost of labour has declined on farms over time. In 1970, 16 cents was spent on labour for every R1 of output produced. This decreased to 13 cents in 1980, increased to 19 cents in 1994 and decreased to 17 cents in 1998. In 2001 it had declined to 11.7 cents”.

This suggests that human rights violations, oppression and exploitation of farm dwellers and workers is a combination the oppression by farm owners, weak policy or legislative framework and the changing agrarian structure. It is important to locate the discussion on the land and tenure rights for farm dwellers and workers.

Dispossession, Displacements and Evictions
Land rights and agrarian reform are central to the realization of human rights. “The fulfillment of various economic, social and cultural rights show a direct relationship to land, such as the right to food, the right to housing, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to culture, the right of indigenous peoples and other” Land reform in our considered opinion has failed farm workers and dwellers. In essence farm dwellers and workers has been dislocated from land reform.
The condition of farm workers and dwellers has to be placed at the problem of land inequality and the state’s apparent siding with white agrarian capital. Here we have to point out the unequal power relations on farms and rural areas are directly related to the unequal land ownership patterns. Yet the government has restricted us to an arbitrary figure of redistributing 30% of agricultural land to the dispossessed. South Africa’s legislative framework are legitimizing dispossession and are not geared to address the systemic problems faced by farm dwellers and workers. The extent of evictions and displacements has been systematically documented by the Nkuzi study.

Whilst we are told that we have the most progressive constitution in the world transformation is in our view constrained by the property clause. The property clause represents the compromise to protect the private property of those responsible for dispossession. In essence the constitution gives the current land owners the right to defend property, that is white ownership of land in South Africa. It gives credence to the illegitimacy of white ownership of land. Until land inequality is addressed, we will move little to address the imbalances of the past. It seems agrarian capital and organized agriculture is the partner of choice of the state. This is clearly reflected in the draft Land Tenure Bill.

The proposed Land Tenure Security Bill  and farm workers and dwellers
There has been numerous consultations where farm workers and dwellers and others articulated their views on a new bill. This was done at the  National Land Summit held in 2005 and the South African Human Rights Commission public hearings to assess the progress made in terms of land tenure security, safety and labour relations in farming communities since 2003.  It is our view that the new bill basically advances the agenda of white capital in South Africa to maintain the skewed land ownership patterns in South Africa.
Let us briefly view the objections of Agri –SA during the land summit and the contents of the new Land Tenure Security Bill.

Farm dwellers and Workers Proposal at the Summit
Government must proactively acquire land, using expropriations for the creation of sustainable settlements for people living and working on commercial farms and to give recognition of their rights within commercial farms
Agri- SA
Agri-SA is in favour of off- farm rather than on farm solutions and expropriations should be a measure of last resort
New Land Tenure Security Bill
The Bill proposes Agri villages and Land Development Assistance. In essence it is off-farm solution.
This clearly illustrate how Agribusiness and organised white agriculture are dictating policy, while the rest of the dispossessed have to give evidence on their conditions. The question is how long should we give evidence to address the question of land dispossession and improving the livelihoods of the rural poor.

Conclusion
Agrarian transformation is critical to resolve the systemic problems faced by farm dwellers and workers. This should be accompanied by intensive agricultural reform to reverse the neo liberal restructuring in agriculture. Whilst SPP is of the opinion that public hearings and stakeholder consultations is important, it has to shift away from a restricted notion of rights and address the core problem of land dispossesion and related problems faced by farm workers and dwellers.
These suggestions in our view is critical to change the unequal power relations between landowners and farm dwellers and workers. Radical land redistribution should be core to change the unequal land ownership patterns. This should serve as a basis for a radical transformation of rural areas.

Ricado Jacobs
Research, Information and Advoacy Coordinator
Surplus People Project