Rustenburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) deputy general secretary Solly Phetoe will be in the North West to fight farm evictions and help the NUM to recruit, the federation said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said Phetoe would be visiting the farm workers and farm dwellers at Rooistad in Klerksdorp on Thursday, to fight their illegal eviction by the new farm owner.
“This workplace visit will be done jointly with the department of rural development and land reform in the province [North West],” he said.
“These poor farm workers, who have spent their whole lives on that farm, are being evicted with no regard to due legal processes by the new owner. The federation is intensifying its campaign of defending vulnerable workers ,and will be mobilising all progressives in the area to defend the workers against these unfair evictions, from a farm where they have lived for 70 years.”
He said this was part of the federation’s ongoing back to basic campaign, where the leadership was conducting workplace visits to deal with all challenges facing vulnerable workers across all the sectors of the economy.
Phetoe would also join the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) during the union’s door to door and recruitment campaigns in the area of Marikana in Rustenburg on the same day.
Phetoe was regarded as the champion of farm workers and other vulnerable workers before he was elected the deputy secretary of Cosatu in November last year. He was for fighting for the right of all vulnerable.
Pamla said Cosatu was deeply troubled by the farming sector’s total disregard for the country’s labour laws.
“We have seen a troubling continuation of the illegal evictions of farm workers and farm dwellers, who are not even given insufficient time notification or alternative housing.
“Most of these workers are not even allowed to visit the graves of family members and friends on other farms after being evicted. Their graves are sometimes desecrated or destroyed and their live stock confiscated by farmers during these evictions,” he said.
“We cannot allow generations of farm workers, who were born on the farms, where they work, to be treated and evicted in the same way they were evicted by the evil apartheid regime.”
African News Agency