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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Farmers Flock to Towns
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, March 18, 1992
South Africa: Drought Crisis Continues; Claiming Victims.
Farmers Flock to Towns.
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[Article by Paula Fray: "Farming Folk Despair as Crops Wilt"--First paragraph is THE STAR introduction. Johannesburg THE STAR
in English 17 Feb 92 p 11]
</p>
<p> [Text] As the sun beats down on the Free State, it is met by
the rising heat from the baked soil. And, as the weeks pass
without rain, the drought takes a rising human toll.
</p>
<p> Thousands of farm labourers are flocking to Free State towns
in the futile hope of getting work. But, with no hope of a
harvest this year, chances are that most will end up in the
burgeoning squatter camps where malnutrition is growing rapidly.
</p>
<p> Operation Hunger field coordinator Anthony Mfila says about
55 percent of children between the ages of five and 15 are
malnourished. Most of them are recent migrants from the farm
areas.
</p>
<p> "Unless help is given, this will definitely rise," he adds.
</p>
<p> Not only have farmers been crippled by the drought, but the
economic situation has led to numerous retrenchments at
factories in the smaller towns.
</p>
<p> Throughout the Free State fields of mealies present fool's
gold for the hopeful. Their growth stunted, their green
appearance belies one of the worst droughts the country has
ever seen.
</p>
<p> As more and more farm labourers move to the cities, swelling
squatter communities, organisations such as Operation Hunger
are straining to cope with the increasing number of
malnourished children. Kwashiorkor is becoming more common.
</p>
<p> Lusaka squatter camp, outside Theunissen, is one such area,
filled with farm labourers without hope of work this year.
</p>
<p> "About 40 percent of the black rural community survive on
seasonal work. This year, there will not be a harvest," says
Operation Hunger regional director Judity Mokgetle.
</p>
<p> Theunissen's Sister Sophia Cockrell, has seen the influx of
workers and how her sisters strain to cope.
</p>
<p> Although the clinic has received finance for targeted
assistance from the government, Sister Cockrell does not
believe the rest of the community can survive without Operation
Hunger's help.
</p>
<p> An outbreak of measles has prompted an urgent immunisation
programme at local schools.
</p>
<p> But she says, "There is an enormous problem with
tuberculosis and malnutrition."
</p>
<p> While the former is complicated by overcrowded conditions,
the latter is severely exacerbated by ignorance, says Sister
Cockrell.
</p>
<p> Most farm mothers are unaware of symptoms of malnutrition
and nurses tell of mothers boasting that their children are
gaining weight when the symptoms are really malnourishment.
</p>
<p> "We find that once diarrhoea sets in that the mothers first
use home-made remedies, including an enema, under the mistaken
impression it is something the children have eaten.
</p>
<p> "By the time they are taken to local clinics the children
are not only malnourished but dehydrated as well," says Mrs.
Mokgetle.
</p>
<p> The despair is shared by the farming community.
</p>
<p> Clement Seape has fought against the system for over 20
years as one of the country's few black farmers.
</p>
<p> But the drought may yet present his biggest challenge.
</p>
<p> "In my entire experience as a farmer we have never had such
a dry February with temperatures of up to 35 deg C.
</p>
<p> "I planted, hoping it would rain. But when it did come it
was just a drop in the ocean. The soil is as dry as a bone,"
says Mr. Seape.
</p>
<p> "The farmers' future is already jeopardised. In the last six
years we have had more drought than good years.
</p>
<p> "I planted 200 hectares of sunflowers. But the sunflowers
which normally withstand the heat start wilting.... The mealies
are a write-off. If by March there is still no rain, I will
have no stock left by July," he says.
</p>
<p> The owner of two farms--one of 140 ha and another of 600
ha--Mr. Seape is not only facing the consequences of the
drought but also increased violence and theft against Free State
farmers.
</p>
<p> "I brought some sheep here the other day--40 of them got
stolen in broad daylight," he says, shrugging.
</p>
<p> It is impossible to plant mealies, or even pumpkins, out of
eyesight, he adds, attributing the increase in crime to a
breakdown in law and order.
</p>
<p> At this stage he has not needed to retrench any of his
workers but there will be no harvesting this year and so
seasonal labour will not be hired.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>