Profit, but not at black women’s expense
· Citizen
The sad reality about South Africa is that, notwithstanding the repeated bleating about the oppression of whites, the people at the bottom of the pyramid in our country are black women.
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As our story yesterday made heartbreakingly clear, black women farm workers – and here we include coloured women, too – are exploited and abused day in and day out so that we can enjoy the food on our table.
For a paltry R27.58 per hour, the minimum wage before this month’s adjustment to R30.23 per hour, these women toil on farms countrywide, often living in terrible accommodation, battling exhaustion, despair and even hunger… because there is so little work out there.
As many rush to shout that these women should be grateful to have jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is nudging 40% of adults – or that agricultural businesses might go bankrupt if forced to pay living wages – it needs to be said some of these employees are only seasonal workers, living for many months of the year without an income, perhaps reliant on government grants for survival for them and their families.
They are also exploited in myriad ways – from deductions from their wages for their pitiful living conditions, to being evicted from farms if they lose a spouse who was also a worker.
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Many also told researchers from the Commission for Gender Equality they face physical threats from criminals, including rape, as they move to and from the fields.
We realise that farming is, at best, a marginal industry and many agribusinesses do go bust.
But making a profit from farming should never be at the expense of other human beings.
These women must be paid properly and treated with dignity.
To twist a phrase agricultural activists are fond of using: remember them the next time you have food in your mouth.
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