|
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - More workers have been evicted from South African farms since the advent of multiracial democracy in 1994 than in the 10 years before that, according to a new survey presented to parliament Tuesday.
The survey said that 1.7 million people — nearly all uneducated blacks with little knowledge of their legal rights — had been thrown off farms where housing often came with jobs in the past 20 years: 737,114 people between 1984 and 1994; and 942,303 people in the subsequent decade.
The government has tried to improve the plight of farm laborers by enacting legislation on minimum wages and tenancy rights. But the authors of the survey painted a miserable picture of wages and living conditions and said most workers were unaware they had any legal protection.
|