SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: Govt to regularise Zimbabwean farmworkers

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 10 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - A government-run facility that will regularise Zimbabwean farmworkers employed in South African farms is to be established next month in a reception and support centre for undocumented immigrants.

"It is not going to be a recruitment agency - but we will provide work permits to Zimbabwean farmworkers [already employed] in the northern South African province of Limpopo, many of whom are currently illegally employed," Mokgadi Pela, a spokesman for the Ministry of Labour told IRIN.

The Nkuzi Development Association, an NGO championing the rights of South African farmworkers in Limpopo, contends that there are tens of thousands of Zimbabweans employed on farms in the province.

According to the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which is setting up the reception centre in collaboration with the governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa at the Beitbridge border post between the two countries, between 1,000 and 2,000 Zimbabweans are deported via Beitbridge every week. The centre, funded by British government's Department for International Development, will be operational in February.

Nkuzi's Marc Wegerif expressed concern that Zimbabwean workers were being hired by South African farmers to exploit their labour for poor wages and working conditions. "What measures have been placed to ensure that does not continue to happen?"

However, Pela contended that the agency would ensure that "Zimbabwean workers are paid the wages as stipulated by the department and not exploited by some unscrupulous South African farmers". Farmworkers have to be paid a minimum monthly salary ranging between US $106 and $131 but illegal migrant workers sometimes do not get even half that amount.

Migrants with work permits would also have access to healthcare and legal rights, often denied to undocumented migrants, he added. Besides helping farmworkers, the centre will help deported migrants with transportation, food rations, basic healthcare, and information on HIV/AIDS.

Cross-border migration has become a contentious political issue in the region, because of disparities in economic development and consequent gaps in employment opportunities, noted IOM spokeswoman Nicola Simmonds.

Zimbabwe is going through a severe economic crisis and facing serious food shortages after recurring droughts and the government's fast-track land redistribution programme, which began in 2000 and has disrupted agricultural production and slashed export earnings.

[ENDS]