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A fight for justice — reflections on the South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins:

1 Apr 2025

The tribunal was both a powerful indictment and a call to action for the immediate banning of highly hazardous pesticides in South Africa.

It has taken me a few days to fully absorb the proceedings and reflect on their impact, without losing all hope for our beloved country and its people as we live another day to fight for a better future under the ever-present cloud of pesticides in our environment.

The South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins was a deeply moving and historic moment where affected communities, supported by a coalition of civil society organisations, NGOs and trade unions, came together to hold the government accountable for its failure to protect people from pesticide harm.

While political leaders stood on podiums across the country, celebrating the supposed human rights gains in 31 years of democracy, farmworkers and dwellers shared harrowing testimonies of their daily pesticide exposure, both in the workplace and at home.

Listening to their life stories alongside eye-opening research findings on the excessive use of pesticides in agriculture left me shaken. This is more than an environmental issue, it is a human rights issue and it’s a public health crisis that affects all South Africans.

Grave risks

Pesticides, by design, are toxic. They kill pests, but they also pose grave risks to human health and the environment, even at low levels. Yet, despite industrial agriculture’s dependence on them, South Africa’s pesticide use is still governed by the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act of 1947 – a colonial relic that predates apartheid.

This outdated law permits a double standard where major agrochemical corporations export pesticides banned in their home countries – in Europe, the US and China – into South Africa, where they contaminate soil and water, poison food and devastate ecosystems. We are all exposed, almost all the time. Shockingly, 36 highly hazardous pesticides, deemed dangerous by international standards, remain legally registered for use in the country.

Framed as a court of public opinion, the tribunal sought to expose agrarian feudalism and state complicity that violates people’s human rights and fails to uphold the Constitution.

The choice of Stellenbosch – nestled in the heart of the Cape Winelands – was deliberate. Here, farmworkers endure slave-like working conditions, forced evictions and daily pesticide exposure, all to produce the “Proudly South African” wines that Western consumers enjoy, and that are marketed as a symbol of national pride.

Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biodiversity opened the tribunal with a stark truth: at the core of every case presented lay the sacrifice of people.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Toxins and Human Rights, Marcos A Orellana, joined via video, echoing findings from his 2024 report to the UN Human Rights Council. He highlighted South Africa’s ongoing environmental racism due to weak regulations and enforcement, which disproportionately harms marginalised, low-income communities along racial lines.

Street pesticides

One particularly alarming issue is the rise of street pesticides – illegally sold, highly toxic agricultural chemicals repackaged for household use.

Professor Andrea Rother coined the term, warning of the severe risks, particularly for children. The tragic deaths of six young children in Naledi, Soweto, due to Terbufos poisoning in October 2024, is just one of many preventable cases linked to the government’s failure to regulate highly hazardous pesticides.

Read more: Tragic deaths of six Soweto children linked to lethal organophosphate poisoning – investigation ongoing

Farmworkers and dwellers have been leading the charge for the banning of pesticides for decades in South Africa. One moment that stood out was the testimony of Dina Ndleleni, a former farmworker, activist and a member of Women on Farms Project.

Born on a farm nearly 65 years ago, she spent her life working in commercial vineyards. In 2019, while working in the fields, she collapsed after pesticide exposure. Hospitalised for more than seven days, she later learned what the culprit was – Dormex, a chemical pesticide labelled as corrosive and potentially fatal if inhaled.

Today, she suffers from severe respiratory issues, unable to work, with no medical leave compensation or severance pay. “I am suffering now, forever,” she said.

Hers was just one of many testimonies presented at the tribunal.

Addressing the panel of jurors – Judge Navi Pillay, Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross and Human Rights Commissioner Philile Ntuli – Deneco Dube, General Secretary of CSAAWU (Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union), exposed the brutal legacy of colonialism and apartheid in the working conditions of farmworkers today.

He detailed the state’s role in facilitating farm evictions, which happen under the cover of night. Landowners obtain court-backed eviction orders and call on the police to forcibly remove entire families from their generational land, dumping them on the streets. These evictions have fuelled the mushrooming of informal settlements, where basic services such as clean water and sanitation are nonexistent, leading to the use of street pesticides for pest control. It’s a vicious cycle.

The tribunal laid bare the government’s failures at multiple levels, exposing its neglect of vulnerable communities, including children. It was both a powerful indictment and a call to action for the immediate ban of highly hazardous pesticides in South Africa. We trust the jurors to carefully weigh the evidence and uphold justice. DM

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Grave risks

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