The Rural Legal Centre in South Africa has accused farmers and the Robertson municipality in Cape Town of ignoring tensions between seasonal migrant farm workers from Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
As a result, violent clashes were witnessed in the township of Nkqubela in Robertson leaving the community traumatised.
The Rural Legal Centre field worker Denia Jansen said the struggle for farming jobs in Cape Town had seen deadly fights between various groups, including Robertson locals, South Africans, and fellow African employees from Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
“Inner fights among local workers and migrant workers were ignored and now this is the outcome of our ignorance,” Jansen said in a statement.
The Rural Legal Centre said they met with the police last year after another clash and warned them of the imminent violence.
They then tried inviting the Langeberg municipality and surrounding farm owners to discuss an approach to the conflict. However, the municipality and local farmers ignored the warnings.
Jansen said the tensions would be tense given the current fruit harvest season and desperation for jobs by foreign workers.
“It’s not about migrant workers against migrant workers. People are desperate for work. Its harvest time now, and everyone wants to earn something. Our main objective is to bring peace. We all are workers, we all are poor and the poor are fighting each other for a piece of bread on the table.”
Billy Claasen, the executive director of the Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation, also blamed the farmers for hiring foreign nationals as seasonal workers.
“This is what we have been warning people in the agricultural sector about all along,” he said in a statement.
“This must be squarely placed on the doorstep of the farmers. They are wholly responsible for the xenophobia in agriculture. All the bloodshed is on their hands.
“Farmers use cheap labour and import trucks, buses and taxis full of foreigners to take over the work of locals. This is a direct result of cheap, imported labour,” he said.
He said the effect created overcrowding in the suburbs because farmers “hire and fire” people, and the workers have to find somewhere to live.
“The same happens in Clanwilliam, Citrusdal and other towns.”
He said South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa should call a meeting of labour organisations, civil society and farmers associations “to sort the problems out before they spill over to other towns”.
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