Guide to Tenure Security Rights on Farms (English)

Lawyers for Human Rights–Security of Farm Workers Project have contact every day with farm workers. Through this, we have found that there is a misconception by occupiers that the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (ESTA) grants occupiers ownership rights to their residences which they occupy on farms. A farm worker does not receive ownership of a house that has been allocated to him on a farm. In the past, prior to November 1997, farm workers had no protection regulating their rights of residence on a farm. As a result, farm workers were unfairly evicted without any court processes being followed by a land owner. Therefore ESTA was promulgated in November 1997 to regulate the:

• conditions of residence on certain land, such as farms
• conditions and circumstances under which the right of persons to reside on land is terminated
• legal process which has to be followed by the land owner, before a farm worker may be evicted.