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17 September 2007

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Mtholephi Mthimkhulu (MPL) has come out in support of the comments by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Dirk du Toit that farmers who illegally evict tenant workers will have their land expropriated.

Responding to a question in the National Assembly this week, Deputy Minister Du Toit described the eviction of farm workers as a "medieval practice that just continues and continues."

The Deputy Minister also noted farm workers enjoyed protection in terms of two pieces of legislation - the Extension of Security Act, and the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act.

MEC Mthimkhulu said the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs fully supported the Deputy Minister's comment in the light of the continuing inhuman eviction of farm tenants in some parts of the province.

"We fully support to the hilt the comments by Deputy Minister du Toit and his comments are not his alone as an individual but that of the entire government. Therefore the brouhaha that his comment has elicited from some in the agricultural sector is misplaced," said MEC Mthimkhulu.

The MEC said despite the existing legislation protecting tenant workers, some farmers in the province continue to evict their tenants as was reported by the Human Rights Commission during its presentation to Parliament earlier this year on farm abuses and evictions.

"It is precisely for this reason that we in KwaZulu-Natal have gone a step further by constituting a Provincial Land and Agrarian Reform Forum (PLARFO) to address matters such as evictions and abuses in the agricultural sector."

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Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
17 September 2007
Source: SAPA