'I don't want to go back to the farm': a case study of working for water beneficiaries

In addition to clearing invasive alien plants, the Working for Water (WfW) Programme, as a South African government public works programme, provides short-term employment and training to empower the poor in finding alternative employment within the labour market. Several studies indicate that its be...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:South African Journal of Science 2013-09, Vol.109 (9-10), p.1-1
Main Authors: Hough, Jan A, Prozesky, Heidi E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Beneficiaries
Case studies
Employment
farm labour
Farms
Farmworkers
Independent contractors
invasive alien species
Invasive plants
landowner
Private property
Public works
Skill development
Training
Working for Water
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In addition to clearing invasive alien plants, the Working for Water (WfW) Programme, as a South African government public works programme, provides short-term employment and training to empower the poor in finding alternative employment within the labour market. Several studies indicate that its beneficiaries become financially dependent on WfW projects and tend to be reluctant to leave the programme. The sociological reasons for this reluctance, however, remain largely unstudied. We therefore address this gap by reporting on a case study of four WfW projects in the Western Cape Province. Face-to-face interviews with beneficiaries suggest that a number of push and pull factors contribute to their dependency on WfW. Chief among these factors is a fear among previous farmworkers of returning to farm work. It was found that the latter can be linked to a historical power-relations legacy between landowners and farmworkers, mainly created by institutional racism still prevailing on many Western Cape farms. These findings bear important implications for the implementation of a new draft WfW policy aimed at encouraging private landowners to employ WfW beneficiaries on their land as clearers of invasive alien plants.
ISSN:0038-2353
1996-7489
DOI:10.1590/sajs.2013/1119