Tonight we give viewers an inside look at exploitation of illegal Zimbawean farmworkers on farms in the Limpopo. While the economic chaos continues in Zimbabwe, hordes of migrant workers pour daily into South Africa , most of them illegally. In the face of constant rumours of exploitation of these migrants on South African farms we decided to investigate.Limpopo farmers have long been granted permits to employ Zimbabwean laborers to do seasonal jobs that unemployed South Africans are not prepared to do.
They are however not allowed to employ illegal immigrants and they are expected to comply with the minimum wage of R5.07 per hour or R989 per month.
We asked Godknows Nare, a Zimbabwean journalist, and his friend Sifelani Moyo, to pose as border jumpers looking for work. On the very first day we drop them off about 40 kilometres south of the border, in the Mopani region equipped with a hidden camera. Within ten minutes they were recruited by a foreman driving around in a bakkie.
After rounding up more workers from the roadside, they were driven straight to a farm to pick tomatoes for a day. No travel documents were checked and they were told that the wage for the day is R14. This and other experiences were recorded and tells the story of exploitation by unscrupulous farm managers, who simply ignore the current labour laws of the country.
"R14 a day" this exposé of unfair labour practices was produced by Johann Abrahams, and filmed by Jan de Klerk with hidden camera footage by Godknows Nare.
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