Four ministers of government of national unity (GNU) appear to have shunned an event organised to discuss the danger of pesticides that killed several school kids and left farm workers sick.
Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen, Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, environment minister Dion George, and labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth were missing in action at the South African People’s Tribunal on agrotoxins in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, on Human Rights Day weekend despite an invitation sent out to their offices.
The ministers were invited to the tribunal by The Women on Farms Project, but none of them showed up.
Original copies of the invitations that Sunday World has seen went out to Steenhuisen, Motsoaledi, George and Meth, but they all failed to attend, citing various reasons.
Disappointed organisers placed a placard emblazoned with the words “Minister Steenhuisen Ban Terbufos Now!” on the DA leader’s empty chair.
Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale explained that Motsoaledi could not attend as pesticides are the turf of the agriculture department.
George’s spokesperson, Thobile Molobi, blamed the minister’s non-attendance on robust IT systems that flagged the invitation “as potential spam”.
Minister Steenhuisen’s media liaison Joylene van Wyk disputed the validity of two out of the three email addresses used to send the invitation to the minister. She, however, confirmed that the third address, belonging to Steenhuisen, was correct, but said he never uses it.
“He never received the email,” she said.
A key issue on the agenda was the state’s approval of Terbufos, a highly toxic pesticide linked to the deaths of six children in Soweto in 2024.
According to reports, the children consumed contaminated snacks from a local spaza shops.
The Women on Farms Project’s campaigns co-ordinator Kara Mackay said Steenhuisen’s presence was especially important since the Department of Agriculture is responsible for registering pesticides.
“Our government is unresponsive to the needs of farmworkers. The department’s response to letters calling for the banning of Terbufos lacked sympathy, even as workers’ lives are at risk. Once the department registers a pesticide, it’s as if the product and the producer are exempted from scrutiny.
When you speak to [the Department of] Agriculture, they blame labour, and when you speak to labour, they blame agriculture.”
Steenhuisen was formally urged to ban Terbufos in December 2024 by the African Centre for Biodiversity. In response, the minister cited economic risks. He doubled down on his position in a letter dated March 5.
“The Department of Agriculture is fully aware of the risk to human health,” he wrote, “but
consideration of banning Terbufos should be done in a manner that is least disruptive to the
production of crops.”
He described the Soweto incident as “incidental poisoning” and suggested the pesticide may have entered the country through neighbouring states.
“The outright ban of Terbufos will have a devastating impact, which could impact food security in South Africa,” he said.
Testimony at the tribunal clarified that Terbufos is but one part of a far-reaching pesticide crisis affecting farmworkers across the country.
In a survey presented during the tribunal, hundreds of women reported exposure to dangerous agrochemicals without protective clothing, training or medical supervision.
Dina Ndleleni, 63, from De Doorns, was one of them. After being exposed to Dormex, a pesticide commonly used on grapes, she collapsed in the vineyards in July 2022.
“I was in the vineyards on Mooiuitsig Plaas when I was exposed,” she said. “The sprayer was on a tractor, about 15m away from us – spraying Dormex. As we were working, my throat began to itch.
Then my throat began to burn. My chest tightened, and I became short of breath.”
Her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was diagnosed at Worcester Hospital. “Before, I was healthy. Now, I get tired after a few steps,” she said.
Ndleleni worked for 53 years on farms. She says she never received protective equipment.
The report also featured Mekie Piet, 56, of Wellington. Solomon, her husband, died in May 2021 after working nine years at Rawsonville.
“I told him, it’s the ‘pesticide that is making you sick’,” she said. His stomach had been eaten away, according to scans. “I saw it with my own eyes. His stomach was yellow fat, full of holes. It looked like something had eaten it away.”
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