Activists to highlight struggles on World Food, Rural Women’s days

MORE than 300 people are set to converge on Suurbraak tomorrow to mark World Food Day and International Rural Women’s Day.

Activists from the Overberg, Breede River, Langeberg, Kannaland, Drakenstein and Cape Town will descend on the hamlet and provide updates on the struggles they face.

Denia Jansen of the Mawubuye Land Rights Forum said the important role rural women and girls play by ensuring the sustainability of households and communities was worth celebrating.

“World Food Day is used to spread awareness that there are still people in this world starving and, especially now with the proposed Seed bill… deny rural people their right to plant or keep their own seeds and our rural women are already struggling to feed their families.”

The organisations seek to build relationships and speak about the struggles facing the poor, including the fishing communities in their struggle against fishing allocations and small-scale farmers and their struggle for land.

Reinette Heunis said the event would allow her community to give greater insight into their ongoing fight for services and housing.

In May, residents built shacks along the town’s Main Road to highlight the Swellendam Municipality’s failure to address their demands.

She said they were facing an uphill battle and a legal process has begun to evict members from the Community Hall, which they have occupied since their shacks were demolished.

Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) spokesperson Trevor Christians said the event would be an opportunity to share the plight of farm workers.

“We want people to know that they have the ability to effect change, but only through unity can they achieve the change they desire,” he said.