The ‘Reckless’ White Father: The Violent Deaths of Farmworkers in South Africa and their Saliences

The `dop' system, alcohol abuse and social control amongst farm workers in South Africa: a public health challenge

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to delineates workers’ labour turnover and considerations around work, in a context of informalisation of work, through a case study of temporary non-resident farm workers in the deciduous fruit sector in Ceres, South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is a three-phase exploratory sequential mixed-methods strategy. Findings from 29 in-depth interviews were refined, verified and ranked in four focus groups. These informed grounded indicators in a survey of 200 farm workers employed in peak season and their 887 household members.FindingsConsiderations are informed by work-related insecurities, interpersonal workplace relationships and reproductive insecurity in the form of care of others, social linkages and residential insecurity, seemingly hierarchical. The least important considerations most thwart workers’ ability to complete fixed-term contracts and account for over 70 per cent of labour turnover in the form of resignations. In sum, workers experience constrained considerations around work arising from their material, social and economic conditions.Originality/valueThis is the first study on the labour turnover of farm workers in South Africa and the fifth globally. The research gives precedence to the voice of farm workers and is a thick description of workers’ considerations around work.

Reflecting global trends, migrant farm workers in South Africa experience challenges in accessing healthcare. On the commercial farms in Musina, a sub‐district bordering Zimbabwe, Medécins sans Frontières and the International Organization for Migration both implemented migration‐aware community‐based programmes that included the training of community‐based healthcare workers, to address these challenges. Using qualitative data, this paper explores the experiences that migrant farm workers, specifically those involved in the programmes, had of these interventions. A total of 79 semi‐structured interviews were completed with migrant farm workers, farm managers, NGO employees and civil servants between January 2017 and July 2018. These data were supplemented by a review of grey and published literature, as well as observation and field notes. Findings indicate that participants were primarily positive about the interventions. However, since the departure of both Medécins sans Frontières and the International Organization for Migration, community members have struggled to sustain the projects and the structural differences between the two programmes have created tensions. This paper highlights the ways in which local interventions that mobilise community members can improve the access that rural, migrant farming communities have to healthcare. However, it simultaneously points to the ways in which these interventions are unsustainable given the realities of non‐state interventions and the fragmented state approach to community‐based healthcare workers. The findings presented in this paper support global calls for the inclusion of migration and health in government policy making at all levels. However, findings also capture the limitations of community‐based interventions that do not recognise community‐based healthcare workers as social actors and fail to take into account their motivations, desires and need for continued supervision. As such, ensuring that the ways in which migration and health are included in policy making are sustainable emerges as a necessary element to be included in global calls.

Farm workers employed on commercial farms are among the poorest and most food insecure population groups in South Africa. This study investigated formal (organisational) and informal exchange relations and the association with food security within ego (N = 561) and whole networks (N = 54) among farm workers and their households on three commercial farms. All households were food insecure, with mildly food insecure actors (n = 22) showing significantly smaller-sized networks with regard to total number of ties and food exchange ties compared to moderately food insecure actors (n = 32). Informal exchange networks were largely kin-related and characterised by low economic status, located within a 50 km radius. While these networks represented an important strategy to cope with food insecurity, farm workers lack bridging ties to actors (individuals or institutions) outside the farm who may enable access to information and opportunities to mobilise resources towards enhancing food security and livelihoods in the long term. Shop owners and farm owners occupy a central position in the networks, highlighting dependency and ongoing paternalistic structures. This study contributes empirical data to the scarce literature on network analysis in the context of food security in South Africa, providing in-depth insights on a population that is formally employed, but remains poor, marginalised and forgotten in contemporary debates on food and nutrition security. Efforts to implement existing policies remain crucial to enable farm workers to access resource-rich networks, including socially more advantaged actors or organisations, in order to achieve better livelihoods outcomes.

How does the COVID‐19 pandemic impact migrant worker visibility? This paper examines how the pandemic underscores the invisibility of Zimbabwean migrant farm workers employed at ZZ2, one of the largest commercial farms in South Africa. I argue that Zimbabweans are made invisible in three ways. First, employer and state restrictions on mobility, alongside rising xenophobia in South Africa, leave migrant workers hyper‐visible to ZZ2 management, yet invisible to most people outside the farm. Second, ZZ2 avoids discussion of its migrant workforce in public forums, even as it faces increased scrutiny for its treatment of its workers during the pandemic. Third, the most prominent critic of ZZ2—the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)—grants migrant workers only a partial visibility as undifferentiated foreigners with no voice, a construction that ultimately maintains their invisibility at the company. Taken together, these interlocking forms of invisibilization diminish the structural and associational power of workers.

Orientation: Very few studies examine the impact of peer relationships on the psychological contract.Research purpose: Using the backdrop of wine farm workers in the Western Cape, South Africa, the aim of our study was to explore the nature of peer relationships shaping the psychological contract. Motivation for the study: The agricultural sector of South Africa, in particular the wine farms in the Western Cape, has undergone radical change in the past decades as a result of labour legislation and changing government structures. It was therefore expected that these changes would influence the psychological contracts held by wine farm workers.Research approach, design and method: This qualitative study sampled all 24 full-time employees and 2 managers on the Constantia Hills Wine Estate in Cape Town, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using the critical incident technique in combination with a series of open questions.Main findings: Our findings showed support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts and noted the valuable influence of a suitable conduit individual on the relationship between employees and their employer.Practical and/or managerial implications: Wine farm workers in South Africa have a strong need to be consulted after a lifetime of having no voice. In addition to ensuring suitable levels of two-way communication, management must understand the inter-peer contract and the nature of the relationships sustaining it.Contribution: Whilst literature has suggested that management of the psychological contract lies firmly within the domain of the employer, our findings indicated that ensuring harmonious peer-to-peer contracts was also central to good working relationships.

Farm workers are vulnerable working populations who face significant inequalities in accessing health services, including those for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention, treatment and care. This descriptive phenomenological study aimed to explore farm workers' experiences when accessing HIV services and was conducted in Limpopo province, South Africa. Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted in four health facilities from two districts, and two focus group discussions were conducted in one of the farms within the province. Purposive sampling and systematic random sampling were used to select study participants. A deductive thematic approach was used to analyse data, informed by the social-ecological model of health. The results reveal that farm workers perceive multiple interdependent factors that inhibit or enable their access to HIV healthcare services. Key barriers to HIV healthcare were transport affordability, health worker attitudes, stigma and discrimination, models of HIV healthcare delivery, geographic location of health facilities and difficult working conditions. Key facilitators to HIV healthcare included the availability of mobile health services, the presence of community health workers and a supportive work environment. The findings suggest disparities in farm workers' access to HIV services, with work being the main determinant of access. We, therefore, recommend a review of HIV policies and programmes for the agricultural sector and models of HIV healthcare delivery that address the unique needs of farm workers.

BackgroundHigh prevalence of HIV infection has been reported among commercial farm workers in South Africa, but studies of the role of transactional sex in this epidemic is limited.ObjectiveThis study seeks to examine the association between transactional sex and HIV infection among commercial farm workers in South Africa.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of the Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey by the International Organization of Migration among farm workers in Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces, South Africa in 2010. The study included 2,758 sexually active farm workers. The outcome variable was HIV infection while the main explanatory variable was engagement in transactional sex. Other explanatory variables were sex, age, marital status, number of sex partners, food security, recent history of sexually transmitted infection, condom use at last sex with non-regular partner, history of sexual violence and migration status. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were done to obtain unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios of the association between transactional sex and HIV infection.ResultsEngagement in transactional sex was common (19%) but not significantly associated with HIV infection (OR 1.1; CI 0.57-2.44). Female sex (1.93; 1.60-2.32), age 25 to 44 years, recent STI (OR 1.37; CI 1.18-1.58) and sexual violence (OR 1.39; CI 1.19-1.63) were significant risk factors for HIV infection.ConclusionRisky sexual behaviours were common among the farmworker population. HIV prevention interventions should include behavioural change communication and improved access to healthcare for STI and HIV treatment.

This paper compares the results of public and private land redistribution in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It identifies problems that constrain access to the land market, and describes recent efforts to address the liquidity problem associated with mortgage finance. The Land Reform Credit Facility (LRCF) was launched by government in May 1999 to help alleviate cash flow problems on farms purchased by disadvantaged buyers and financed with mortgage loans from commercial banks. The LRCF does not offer subsidies. Rather it offers loans with deferred or graduated repayment schedules to reputable banks and venture capital investors who finance, on similar terms, equity-share projects and land purchased by aspiring farmers. The paper outlines the LRCF experience and considers reasons for its promising start. The loan target of R15 million (US$2.15 million) set for the first year was reached after only eight months.

This chapter examines the linkages between South African fruit producers' responses to global integration and the 'new geography of employment' on fruit farms - particularly as it pertains to the employment and position of women wage labourers. It explores how the interplay of global trends and the role of the state coupled with local, cultural and historical forces mediate labour arrangements and the employment position of women labourers on fruit farms. The chapter traces the ways in which fruit farming in South Africa is 'locally specific'. It attempts to contextualise the South African fruit industry and the changing 'geography of employment' on fruit farms. The chapter examines the pressures experienced by fruit export producers following the global integration of the fruit sector and the extent to which the South African state has retreated or intervened within the broad context of global integration. It explains the local cultural context of paternalism within which producers' responses and existing labour arrangements are embedded.

During the 1990s, eastern Free State vegetable farmers increasingly relied on migrants from neighbouring Lesotho for seasonal labour. This coincided with a major downsizing of the mine labour force in South Africa, hitherto the major employer of Basotho migrant workers. However, there was no simple process of transfer of unemployed migrants from the mining to the farming sector; rather, decisions were mediated by domestic relationships and household poverty in Lesotho. Basotho women and girls have been a major casualty of mine retrenchments and the drying up of remittances, and those with domestic skills but little formal training have been forced into the labour market, mainly domestic work in towns and labour on farms. This article examines the Basotho migrants' experiences and conditions of employment, the regulatory environment within which they are recruited and employed, and their future in the context of changing immigration and migration legislation in South Africa.

As a result of Zimbabwe's economic troubles and displacement, the Zimbabwean workforces on South Africa's border farms display a heightening diversity of regional origins, languages, ages, ethnicities and class histories. This article asks what happens to class consciousness under such conditions. It does so by exploring how male fruit pickers on one particular farm interpret the nexus of class, ethnicity and masculinity. It illustrates how migrant masculinities diverge along class lines, polarising the farm's workers. The work process generates a dominant masculinity based on a ‘rough’ banter, both producing and reflecting shared experiences. But as a strong statement of this masculinity, it is also a model in contrast to which those with middle-class sensibilities can understand themselves. Picking work is therefore an arena for the performance of competing masculinities. These performances in turn reveal workers’ interpretations of class ideals and corresponding ethnic difference. The article offers insight into displaced Zimbabweans’ experiences of their own diversity and of agricultural work itself.

Despite the democratization of South Africa in 1994, which brought the agricultural sector within the ambit of legal protection, farm workers remain vulnerable to an undue burden of social and health problems. Alcohol abuse due to the DOP system, pesticide poisonings, and other occupational hazards illustrate that the likely success of efforts at redress depends on a greater awareness of the rights and justice dimensions of the health problems facing these workers. International trade policies may exacerbate inequalities that deprive them of opportunities to realize their rights at national level. A public health agenda must integrate into programs and policies to address the health of farm workers the recognition that violations of their rights underlie much of their burden of ill health.

Risk factors for spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) allergy among table grape farm workers in South Africa

Human Rights, Environmental Justice, and the Health of Farm Workers in South Africa