<\/p>\n
The Women on Farms Project has raised alarm over continued evictions, landlessness and insecure tenure, particularly in the Cape Winelands of the Western Cape province.<\/p>\n
According to the organisation, luxury developments in areas such as Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek are expanding rapidly, displacing long\u2011standing farming communities while government interventions remain slow and inadequate. Women on Farms Project co\u2011director Carmen Louw said the realities facing farm workers reflect unresolved injustices rooted in apartheid\u2011era land dispossession.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Louw said that more than 72% of agricultural land remains in the hands of white commercial farmers, despite constitutional provisions for land reform. Farm workers, especially women, continue to lack independent tenure rights and remain vulnerable to eviction. Many women live on farms through male relatives, a situation that leaves women legally exposed when employment relationships end or ownership changes.<\/p>\n
Evictions remain widespread, particularly in the Drakenstein area and across the broader Cape Winelands, which has the highest concentration of farm workers in the province. Louw said farms are increasingly being sold or subdivided, with new owners opting for contract labour rather than retaining resident workers. Well\u2011resourced landowners are often able to exploit loopholes in tenure laws, while farm dwellers rely on overstretched state\u2011funded legal aid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Louw also criticised delays in implementing tenure grants provided for under amendments to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, signed into law in April 2024. The grants were intended to prevent displaced farm dwellers from ending up in informal settlements by enabling access to proper housing. According to the Women on Farms Project, no clear evidence has been provided that these grants have been rolled out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The lack of available land remains a major obstacle. The current \u201cwilling buyer, willing seller\u201d approach has resulted in no land being offered for purchase, prompting calls for the state to use powers under the Expropriation Act to secure land for housing and redistribution.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As Freedom Day, celebrated on April 27, approaches, the Women on Farms Project argues that true freedom will remain elusive until land reform, redistribution and tenure security move from policy to practice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32852,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-32851","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"As South Africa (SA) prepares to mark Freedom Day, meant to celebrate democratic gains since 1994, many farm workers and farm dwellers say there is little to commemorate.\u00a0","published_date":"","news_description":"As South Africa (SA) prepares to mark Freedom Day, meant to celebrate democratic gains since 1994, many farm workers and farm dwellers say there is little to commemorate.\u00a0","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32853,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32851\/revisions\/32853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}