EFF statement on the state of poverty in rural households in SA

14 August 2024

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes, with grave concern, the recently released findings of the 2023 study commissioned by Tshintsha Amakhaya and conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The report lays bare the merciless conditions under which rural communities suffer, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and exploitation.

The study scrutinised the lives and livelihoods of agrarian households across the country, revealing shocking statistics: 60% of these households live below the poverty line. It is clear that the plight of rural communities has been ignored, with apartheid-era disparities of race, gender, and class still deeply entrenched in society. The so-called rural and agrarian transformation is a facade, with farmworkers and farm dwellers enduring relentless exploitation. This means that for 30-years, the African National Congress (ANC) have reduced rural communities to "voting cattle".

Despite the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan Programme, which aims to enhance food security and reduce malnutrition, these crises persist, highlighting the systemic failures in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. To compound this crisis, existing interventions have either been inadequate or corruptly mismanaged by the ANC.

Last year, the R2.1 Billion Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) school nutrition programme served corruption instead of nutritional food to 5 400 schools, literally stealing food out of the mouths of starving children. This is yet another blatant display of the ANC's contempt for the children of this nation, fuelled by their insatiable greed and utter disregard for the future of South Africa.

Not only was this R2.1 -billion budget allocation supposed to serve a basic human need for our children, it would contribute to alleviating poverty in local communities as local businesses should be providing the meals to their respective schools. However, the ANC's preferred mandate is stealing food from 2.4-million starving children mouths by corruptly giving the tender to one politically connected service provider.

The EFF's long-standing position is that agriculture has always been central to the revival of rural communities. However, with the Department of Agriculture now in the hands of white supremacists, the situation is only set to deteriorate. Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has already been running her mouth that black people in regions like KwaZulu-Natal are lazy and squatting on fertile land, as opposed to the more successful Western Cape.

Matricless Minister John Steenhuisen has also been engaging with traditional leaders as the DA pushes forward its agenda of land theft. This plan is set to further entrench farming dominance by white farmers while black people remain exploited as farm workers.

The truth is that there has been no meaningful investment in black and African farmers or small-scale farmers akin to the subsidies and markets created for white farmers under colonialism and apartheid. While white farmers thrived under state support, black farmers have been systematically excluded from the system, unable even to access the markets that were once created for their white counterparts.

Additionally, the ongoing exploitation of farm workers on white-owned farms, particularly in places like the Northern Cape and Western Cape, cannot be ignored.

Here, workers are still paid in alcohol—"papsak"—which perpetuates a cycle of addiction and poverty, akin to modern-day slavery. Under the DA-ANC government and with the DA in charge of agriculture, this status quo will be maintained and even aggravated as they seek to serve their white masters with next to free black labour.

The HSRC's findings further corroborate the grim reality that rural households face, confirming the EFF's long-standing view. Gross violations of land rights are a daily occurrence in these communities, ranging from cutting off access to essential services like water and electricity to demolishing homes and denying burial rights. These abuses are part of a broader, systematic effort to displace rural communities in favour of big business and wealthy landowners.

The EFF reaffirms that the agricultural sector cannot develop without direct and radical state intervention. This must include land expropriation without compensation, the establishment of an Agricultural Development Bank, the reconstitution of Agricultural Products Marketing Boards, and targeted support for small-scale farmers, including the provision of tools, implements, and extension services.

The EFF has made rural development a critical part of our agenda in the 7th Parliament, ensuring rigorous oversight of the Department of Agriculture, which remains under the control of white supremacist interests.

Issued by Leigh-Ann Mathys, National Spokesperson, EFF, 14 August 2024