More than 100 farm workers and people living on farms marched to Parliament in Cape Town on Tuesday, demanding faster land redistribution and better protection for farm women. The protest was led by the Women on Farms Project, with demonstrators carrying placards calling for dignified formal housing and chanting for land.

Farm Women Demand Urgent Land Reform

Outside Parliament, Women on Farms Project director Colette Solomon handed over a memorandum to a representative of the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. According to the group, farm workers are still facing evictions 32 years after South Africa’s first democratic elections on 27 April 1994, even in cases where families have lived and worked on farms for generations.

The memorandum said many evicted farm dwellers end up in overcrowded informal settlements. The group is calling for land redistribution policies that prioritise farm women and for the state to acquire and expropriate unused commercial farmland for redistribution.

Evictions Leave Families in Crisis

One protester, Johanna August, said she was evicted along with 23 other families from a farm in Wellington in 2015. She now lives in the New Rest informal settlement, where she described life as harsh and unstable. August said she had lost her son in a shack fire and told protesters she wanted a better life for her children.

She said life in the settlement is far worse than life on the farm. Her account put a human face on the march, which centred on the long-term impact of evictions on families, especially women and children.

Flooding, Disease and Food Insecurity Raised

Women on Farms Project co-director Carmen Louw said New Rest has continued to grow as more displaced families move in. She said living conditions have deteriorated, with tuberculosis, waste build-up and flooding during rainy weather all affecting residents. Louw also said the organisation continues to see many eviction cases on farms.

The memorandum calls for a meeting with Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen to discuss land redistribution, evictions and food insecurity. Acting chief director Nyameko Mgoqi signed the memorandum and said the department would share it with other departments and that government would respond.