South African People's Tribunal on Agrotoxins
Saturday 22 March
Morning
Opening and welcome from the Tribunal coalition
Mystica by Women on Farms (WFP)
Opening messages
Lara Boer, Northern Cape farm worker/ activist
Mariam Mayet, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)
Video message
Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Dr Marcos A. Orellana
Women on Farms Project (WFP) testimonies
Context Statement, Colette Solomon (WFP)
Farm worker testimonies
Dina Ndleleni and Mekie Piet
Inputs by Carmen Louw (WFP) and Mariam Mayet (ACB)
Questions from the bench
Judge Navi Pillay
Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross
Human Rights Commissioner Philile Ntuli
Expert testimony
Prof Leslie London, Chair of Public Health Medicine in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT)
Expert Testimony and Open Floor
Facilitator – Kara Mackay (WFP)
Cognitive health in children exposed to pesticides, Paola Vigletti
Questions from the bench
Open space for farm workers to engage and share lived realities
Afternoon
Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) Testimony
Context Statement, Deneco Dube, General Secretary (CSAAWU)
Farm worker testimonies
Sune Brown and Wendy Linnert
Questions from the bench
Pesticide impacts on reproductive health, Dr Saloshni Naidoo
The measurement of pesticide exposure, Wisdom Basera
Sunday 23 March
Mystica by CSAAWU
Moment of silence for deceased and impacted
Opening and welcome, Rutendo Zendah (ACB)
Reflections from the jury
Street pesticides and child deaths
Facilitator, Haidee Swanby, Coordinator (SAPToA)
Street poisons, pesticide registration, pesticide labels, Prof Andrea Rother
Poison information centres and poisoning data, Dr Cindy Stephen
Questions from the bench
UPL Disaster
South African obligations: International framework on pesticides, Rico Euripidou, groundWork
Context, Bongani Mthembu, Air Quality and Health Officer, Southern Durban Community Environmental Alliance
Community testimonies
– Fisherfolk: Zameer Harichand/Harold Abrahms
– Blackburn Village: Mcebisi Ndzimakhwe/Babalo Masiphula
Community exposure to environmental agrichemical pollution: policy framework shortcomings, corporate negligence compromising health, Prof Rajen Naidoo
Closing remarks – Judges
Programme
Friday 21 March
Exhibition and opening of the Tribunal
19:00 Paying tribute to all people who have died or were affected from pesticide poisoning
20:00 DINNER
Saturday 22 March
Opening and welcome from the Tribunal coalition
08:30 Mystica by Women on Farms (WFP)
Opening messages – Lara Boer, Northern Cape farm worker/ activist and
Mariam Mayet, Director, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)
09:00 Video message: Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Dr Marcos A. Orellana
Women on Farms Project Testimony
09:30 Facilitator and Context Statement, Colette Solomon (WFP)
09:45 Farm worker testimonies, Dina Ndleleni
10:00 Farm worker testimonies, Mekie Piet
10:15 Questions from the bench
10:30 Prof Leslie London testimony (Video recording)
11:00 TEA
Facilitator – Kara Mackay (WFP)
11:30 The measurement of pesticide exposure, Wisdom Basera
Cognitive health in children exposed to pesticides, Paola Vigletti
11:50 Questions from the bench
12:10 Open space for farm workers to engage and share lived realities
13:00 LUNCH
CSAAWU Testimony
14:00 Context Statement, Deneco Dube, General Secretary (CSAAWU)
14:15 Farm worker testimonies – Sune Brown
14:30 Farm worker testimonies – Wendy Linnert
14:45 Questions from the bench
Facilitator – Kara Mackay
15:00 Pesticide impacts on reproductive health, Dr Saloshni Naidoo
15:20 Questions from the bench
15:35 Closing remarks for the day – Judges
16:00 End
Sunday 23 March
08:30 Opening and welcome, reflections, Dorothy Brislin (groundwork)
Moment of silence for the children and farm workers who have died or been negatively affected by pesticides
Street pesticides and child deaths
Facilitator, Haidee Swanby, Coordinator (SAPToA)
08:45 Testimony from Daily Maverick Journalist, Lerato Mutsila who reported on the deaths of children in Naledi, Soweto, after ingesting the highly hazardous pesticide, Terbufos
09:15 Street poisons, pesticide registration, pesticide labels, Prof Andrea Rother
09:45 Poison information centres and poisoning data, Dr Cindy Stephen
10:00 Questions from the bench
10:30 TEA
UPL Disaster
Facilitator – Rico Euripidou
11:00 South African obligations: International framework on pesticides
Rico Euripidou, Chemicals and Campaigns Support, groundwork
11:15 Context statement
Bongani Mthembu, Air Quality and Health Officer, Southern Durban Community Environmental Alliance
11:30 Community testimonies – Fisherfolk: Zameer Harichand/Harold Abrahms
12:00 Community testimonies – Blackburn Village: Mcebisi Ndzimakhwe/Babalo Masiphula
12:15 Questions from the bench
12:30 Community exposure to environmental agrichemical pollution: policy framework shortcomings, corporate negligence compromising health
Prof Rajen Naidoo
12:50 Questions from the bench
13:05 Closing remarks, Judges
13:30 LUNCH and DEPART
What is the People’s Tribunal?
The People’s Tribunal is a community-driven process of justice which will hold the state, companies, farmers, etc.
accountable for violating the rights of farm workers and dwellers by exposing them to highly hazardous agrotoxins.
The People’s Tribunal will raise public awareness through the presentation of credible evidence,
empowering the affected people and starting to develop a common campaign.
Why do we need a Tribunal?
South Africa is the largest consumer of agrotoxins in Africa, with over 9,000 toxic chemical compounds
registered for use in farming and industry, including highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) – many of which
are banned in the European Union. The regulatory break-down and ‘free-for-all’ in the agro-chemical industry
has led to human rights violations and environmental calamity. Those on the frontline of exposure are the
farm workers and the families living in the vicinity of spraying.
Commercial farmers and industry use many agrochemicals that are categorised as highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), slated for banning by the international community. Government policy committed to this more than 14 years ago, but has largely failed to do so. Information on pesticide registration in South Africa is not publicly available, but it is estimated that at least 192 HHPs are still used in South Africa, over a third of which are banned in the European Union.
Examples include:
- Mevinphos, linked to neurological defects leading to long-term health complications;
- Carbofuran, associated with reproductive and developmental defects; and
- Terbufos, a neurotoxic insecticide recently implicated in the deaths of children in low-resource urban areas. Terbufos is banned in 12 out of 16 countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Farm workers, farm dwellers and their families, who are frontline communities, bear the brutal consequences, paying with their health, their lives, and their children’s futures. Our government continues to assert that industrial agriculture is the only route to food production and food security, implicitly sanctioning the sacrifice of farm workers.
Furthermore, these dangerous chemicals do not only affect people on farms – as we learned from a burning chemical warehouse in Cornubia City in KwaZulu-Natal in 2021 that affected the health, livelihoods, and environment in adjacent areas. Dangerous chemicals that are restricted for agricultural use in South Africa also find their way into domestic settings as people buy ‘street pesticides’ to deal with pest infestations resulting from a lack of service delivery and urban food systems collapse. These have already taken the lives of several children in urban areas.
As our turbulent world is plunged into greater chaos, there is also great momentum and impetus amongst us in our collective struggles to reclaim our sovereignty and dignity. For many years, farm worker organisations, unions, civil society, academics, and unions have been calling on government to phase out HHPs and update our antiquated regulatory framework. This has been done through letters of demand, objections, petitions, protests and campaigns. Having reached exhaustion of remedies, we decided to host the Tribunal.
The Tribunal aims to:
- Advocate for a transition out of industrial agriculture through the handing down of a
judgement that demands a radical and transformative agenda. - Bring policy and legislative changes.
- Expose the system that causes human and environmental rights violations with regards to agrotoxins.
- Collate documentation to create a shared body of work on agrotoxins, gather case studies and identify research and policy gaps.
- Bring justice, dignity and protection for farmworkers and an end to victimisation and isolation.
- Support local and international campaigns on HHPs.
Join the movement