Search

The commercial agricultural sector in South Africa has historically been dominated by large-scale operations run by white owners and managers. In redressing this imbalance, black farmers classified as 'emerging' are being encouraged to engage in high-input agricultural production in order to obtain 'commercial' status. Since existing practices in commercial agriculture rely heavily on pesticides, emerging farmers aspiring to become commercial are pressured to adopt and/or increase the use of pesticides. However, problems of access to land, finances, resources, skills and markets overshadow the health and safety of these farmers and their labour force that may be affected by exposure to pesticides. This paper presents the results of a policy study based on primary interview data with key stakeholders and secondary documentary review data, to illustrate how pesticides are used in an occupational health and safety vacuum because the focus of key institutions is rather on economic productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disturbing prevalence of sexual slavery in South Africa is variously attributed to extreme poverty, unemployment, war, lack of food, and traditional practices that make it acceptable to treat women as commodities. Such ‘causes’ are better understood as enabling conditions. The demand for sex workers, organised criminal syndicates and the failure of legal imagination are the real drivers of the South African market. The authors address this failure of legal imagination and suggest how the constitutional prohibition against slavery can be used to develop a legal doctrine of sexual slavery, as well as on appropriate set of remedies, that will assist the State in its efforts to eradicate sexual trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]