The Weekly’s Martin Makoni spoke to the SAHRC provincial manager Buang Jones to find out more about the objectives of the campaign and how that will help further protection of human rights not just in Xhariep but the province as a whole. Excerpts:

Why did the SAHRC find it necessary to conduct this outreach programme in the rural and farming communities in the province?
We always tend to focus on people residing in urban areas with limited focus on rural areas, yet they also have their own set of challenges. Evictions for example, carried out in rural areas are often carried out violently. Opposing these elections has proven difficult for those affected. There are also socio-economic issues which are plaguing communities in rural and farming areas.

So we thought it was important to have these information sessions in the far-flung areas because the commission does not have a presence in every town in the province. We are only located in Bloemfontein and we rely on our relationship with non-governmental organisations through their community advisory centres to amplify human rights issues in remote areas.

So, in order to address the multiplicity of challenges confronting rural communities we needed to have these awareness clinics in the Xhariep district and utilise these clinics to also allow other stakeholders to make presentations so that communities are informed of their rights and how to access government services. Essentially, we want to increase the visibility of the commission and foster public understanding of human rights in the Xhariep district.

Is there any particular reason that Xhariep was chosen for this campaign?
In the last financial year, our focus was Thabo Mofutsanyana district and some parts of Fezile Dabi. We only conducted a few clinics in Xhariep, Springfontein. So we thought we should have clinics again in that district. We also collaborated with the department of justice because they are also promoting their access to justice programme.

There are numerous challenges in Xhariep district. As you would know, some parts of the Free State have been declared disaster areas due to the drought. This has adverse effect on our people. There are other challenges pertaining to access to basic services.

We also discovered that because of Xhariep’s close proximity to Lesotho, there are a lot of undocumented migrants. There are a lot of children who don’t have birth certificates. We also decided to include the department of home affairs so that they could address such issues because in some cases children are not able to go to school and cannot receive social grants because they do not have birth certificates. We wanted to address the distinctive needs of rural and farming communities which are often neglected by statutory bodies. We are taking human rights to the people.

And how important is it for people to know their basic human rights?
It’s very important for people to know and exercise their rights because this would help curb the high prevalence of service delivery protests. This is because people would know that if the municipality fails to provide access to basic services, they can approach the human rights commission and it will do something …

it will act on their behalf to engage government and find a resolution to the problem complaint. I think we need to continually engage our communities so that they desist from engaging in destructive behaviour (such as violent protests to voice their grievances).

What were some of the key issues that came from the people of Thabo Mofutsanyana district during last year’s outreach programme?
In Thabo Mofutsanyana district the biggest challenge was the evictions issue in QwaQwa. There was also the issue of farm evictions, of which there has been an upsurge in eastern Free State.
Access to information was another challenge. People cannot readily access information from the government and municipalities in eastern Free State.

The people are also faced with the problem of water. In QwaQwa as we speak, they are faced with a serious water problem. There is also a community in Harrismith called Selahliwe where people have been living for several years without any basic services such as refuse removal, water, sanitation and electricity.

We also engaged with farm owners in order to understand their challenges and share with them the challenges experienced by farm dwellers and farm workers. We also emphasised on the need for them to adhere to the prescripts of the law if they want to execute any eviction.

You can’t just evict a person without a court order. Some of the farmers normally play mind games with the farm dwellers if they want to evict them by switching off electricity or cutting water supplies. These are some of the things happening in the farming areas around Ficksburg and Fourisburg. We will be having a follow up meeting in that area soon.

How would you describe the effect of evictions on farm dwellers and former farm workers?
Forced evictions leave people very depressed. They threaten a range of human rights which include; the rights to human dignity, security of the person, privacy, health, access to adequate housing, education and life, as well as freedom of movement and freedom to choose one’s residence.

Evictions have a drastic effect on people’s social, economic, physical and psychological well-being. At times farmworkers are not even allowed to bury their loved ones on the farms but in our African culture this is something very important. It’s difficult to motivate them to start building their lives again. Evictions take away their dignity.

What message did you take to the people and what inspired that message?
What we need to achieve, firstly, is that people will deepen their understanding of human rights. Research indicates that notwithstanding this highly acclaimed constitution, a lot of South Africans do not know their rights.

Despite the existence of the commission over the past 20 years, we felt it was important that, in order for people to know their basic human rights. Our people need to be informed and educated first. They need to understand our role and mandate… including that we have jurisdiction and those that we don’t. We also act as an intermediary between people on the ground and the government.

What happens when farmers fail to comply with your recommendations?
We have resolved that in this financial year, we will prioritise farming communities; that is in our legal work… because we have a promotional mandate to advocate for human rights as well as a protection mandate which seeks to protect the rights of people either through investigations, litigations and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.

We have engaged with Legal Aid South Africa because the moment farm dwellers or farm workers are evicted without a court order, that’s a serious transgression of the law. We therefore always urge communities to approach the offices of Legal Aid because they have offices across the country.

What major reasons have farmers cited as the major cause for the evictions?
The farmers have cited policy uncertainty by government. Some say they were not sure about the policy which said there should be a partnership between the farm owner and the workers… the 50-50 land issue. This scared a lot of farmers.

Some of them say they want to sell their farms but the potential buyers make it a condition to them that there should be no one living on the farm. So they are pressured to evict the people in order to make way for the transaction. There is also the issue of security where several farmers have been attacked and even killed, hence they remove the people. But government should come in and do more.

If someone has lived on a farm for 20-30 years where do you expect them to go when evicted?
Why do you think there is limited access to justice in South Africa, do people fully understand their rights?
I don’t know what I should attribute this to but the sense we are getting on the ground is that our people feel defeated. They have resigned themselves to the fact that their plight will never be ameliorated.

This concerns us greatly as the human rights commission because we need active participants in this democracy. Our people need to take part in infrastructure development programmes by municipalities, there must be visible engagement with their councillors, ward committees and municipalities but our people do not demonstrate any enthusiasm.

I don’t know why that is the case but we are making some inroads though the coalitions we have formed with NGOs in the province to disseminate information on human rights so that people are aware of their rights. The other challenge is that we have not successfully utilised the media to advance the human rights projects because we cannot reach every corner of this province. So, it is incumbent on us to strengthen our stakeholders’ ties with media outlets in the province.