South African Farmworkers Face Pesticides Threat, Eviction Crisis

Farm workers and consumers should be worried, says a public health expert. But industry body says food security depends on the pesticides in use, writes Liezl Human for GroundUp. Many pesticides banned in the European Union are used in South African agriculture.

Health experts have said this poses a danger to farm workers and consumers, but the pesticide industry says food security depends on their use. Civil society network Unpoison, has made various submissions to government to update the regulatory framework.

Further, South Africa's regulations on agricultural pesticides have been said to be "ancient". Many of the active ingredients in pesticides still used on local crops have already been banned in the European Union (EU) because of the danger they pose to farm workers.

Chemical dangers mark another difficulty for farm workers with evictions being a constant threat for many. Most recently, cases of evictions were said to spike following the end of the Covid-19 National State of Disaster, with hundreds of workers taking to the streets in the wine producing town of Paarl in the Western Cape, to protest against forced removals from farms.