Executive Director of Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation, Billy Claasen, says he is concerned by what he termed the “appalling living conditions” of farm workers on a farm at the Paarl in the Boland.
Claasen claims that some farm workers at the Marlenique Estate have no proper toilet facilities in the houses they occupy.
He says when workers protested outside the farm against the conditions earlier this week they were confronted by a private security company who allegedly fired rubber bullets.
Claasen also claims there is no running water in the houses of some of the workers.
“For me it was like, shocking, that such a posh farm didn’t even have water in the houses – which is a basic right – and also toilets in the houses… and the houses are in a very bad condition. Those people stay there for 15 years, 20 years, 30 years and there’s children in the houses. They didn’t even have the basic right of a toilet in the house.”
