Whips rule some S.A. farms

Press, 18 April 1981, Page 15

Whips rule some S.A. farms

By

ERIC MARSDEN

‘Sunday Times’

A farmer in Cape Province suspected that a 12-year-old Coloured boy had stolen the equivalent of $l, so he chained the boy to a post by the neck, then kept him chained all night in a barn, and in the morning made him crawl around in his neck halter, cutting the lawn by hand.

An older labourer implicated in the theft, and another who freed the boy, were;- suspended from "a rafter with ropes round their t necks and flogged with hosepipes. One of them was forced to go back to work in the farmer’s vineyard after the flogging. He collapsed repeatedly. Each time he was beaten with a walking stick. He died later from multiple injuries, including damage to the brain and lungs.

In a local court the farmer, Phillipus Petrus du Toit, was sentenced in effect

•to one year’s imprisonment for culpable homicide. An appeal court increased this to three years, noting that du Toit had shown no remorse and that workers on his farm “did not regard serious corporal punishment as something unusual.” The judges added that it was unacceptable for the trial court to have said that the case “had nothing to do with colour.” This horror story’ begar three years ago but the bitter controversy it arousec has been revived by the ijuief release of the farmer or' parole after serving only 11 months. South Africa’s Ombuds man, Eugene Roelofse, whose office conducted the investi gation that led to the highe;. appeal court sentence, is cir culating a petition through out the country asking th Minister of Prisons to pc . the farmer back in jail. i. says his early release is

“prejudicial to the deterrent requirements of justice and detrimental to race relations.” Roelofse, whose family settled in South Africa 200 ■years ago, is concentrating his office’s efforts on ending brutality on farms. After two years of investigations in four provinces, he has enraged white farmers by reporting that beatings and torture are “considered normal in many farming communities.” Farmers’ leaden accuse him of grossly exag gerating by giving publicity to “isolated cases” of brutality. The Ombudsman denie: that his case is over-stated. He agrees that his censure: do not apply to the majoritj His office is impressed by progressive farmers who

provide incentive ■ schemes and have improved their workers’ conditions, “proving that South African agriculture does not depend on the sjambok.” He nevertheless insists that brutality is widespread and that many farmers punish workers with the sjambok — a fearsome whip, traditionally of rhino hide, intended to control herds. He is seeking a ban on the sjambok, which he says is a weapon “not fit to be used on either man or beast.” It has become the symbol of the “white hooligan element which has given the farming community a bad name.” He has asked the farmers’ union to cancel the membership of anyone found using the sjambok.

' He is also seeking a .meeting with farmers’ leaders to show his files of evidence. They include cases in which a $133 fine was imposed on a man who beat to death a labourer who brought back the wrong cigarettes on an errandpa $73 fine* for a fatal assault on an old. herdsman; 12 months’ jail for shooting a pregnant woman who stole a log of wood. Roelofse is campaigning for cases of brutality to be heard by the High Court instead of local magistrates. He told a law students’ meeting that there was “a hard core of sadists” who were able to produce convincing character witnesses in court. These people did not believe they had done anything wrong. “We intend to show them,” says Roelofse, “that it is very expensive to be involved in cases arising from beatings.”

South Africa's farms are still run on feudal lines. On the older-established ones in particular, the farmer is often like a patriarch who treats his workers as junior members of his family, providing housing, food, schools and medical aid. Pay is often abysmal — as little as $3O a month “all found” in parts of the Transvaal, though the better farmers pay nearly $l2O a month. A survey by the "Argus” newspaper in the’ Cape showed that progressive fanners, have realised that i ncentives attract better workers and improve production. Some pay regular bonuses, and provide three-room houses with running water- and electricity, nurseries, youth clubs 'and women’s clubs equipped with television. One of these farmers, commenting on Roelofse’s allega-

tions, said: ‘.'l wouldn’t think of hitting my men. I respect them too much. I’m competing for good labour. I invest a lot in sending them to training centres and I wouldn’t like to lose them.” Roelofse is seeking support from the churches in his anti-brutality campaign. He

savs he has strong backing from Coloured members o: the Dutch Reformed Churcl and from black Methodists but whites in the Methodic church have been “exremeb disappointing.” He ha received money 'from tht Lutheran church, but not st agfar from Anglicans and w Roman Catholics.

He says the only time that force is used on his farm is. to- stop a drunken fight — “But only enough to stop it” During his farm tours. Roelofse has frequently beer threatened, and has had difficulty getting informatior from workers too terrified tc talk. But this fear, he says, is being broken down. Confirmation of a change of attitude comes from a research student who has found that young Africans are now expressing resentment against ; farmers who use violence, /’ low wages and “farmers’ k solidarity” to keep power v over their workers and keep ? them from leaving.'