"The other side of Eden"

The recent release of horrifying statistics on farm-worker evictions has thrown the spotlight on some of the most marginalised members of South Africa’s labour force, rural farm workers and dwellers. But behind every statistic is a name, a face and a personal story.

This week Special Assignment visits the wealthy winelands of Franschhoek to tell some of these stories. Resembling a piece of Provence, the Franschhoek Valley presents a picture of prosperity. Yet in many respects it is a microcosm of South Africa’s ever-widening chasm between privilege and poverty. Concealed behind world-class restaurants, manicured mansions and lush vineyards, are communities of farm labourers whose living and working conditions seem more appropriate to apartheid South Africa than to a country hailed worldwide as a model of democracy and black empowerment.

The benefits of labour and land legislation designed to transform the agricultural sector have yet to reach these workers. Many are unaware that have any rights at all.

But this is not just a document of poverty. It is also a journal of worker empowerment facilitated through the tireless efforts of NGOs who are educating farm labourers and organising them into unions. We also meet individual farm workers who are speaking out against human rights abuses and who have succeeded in bringing about positive changes on several wine estates in the valley. And last, but not least, this programme acknowledges some of the farms in the Franschhoek Valley, which have wholeheartedly embraced transformation, becoming exemplary models of worker empowerment.

“The other side of Eden” is directed by Hazel Friedman and was filmed by Egon Hierse and Johnny Miller.

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e-mail: truth@sabc.co.za

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