UPDATE: Watch a recording of the Parliamentary Briefing below.

Business Day covered the briefing, highlighting Judge Navi Pillay’s call for the Department of Agriculture to “urgently start phasing out the use of toxic chemicals, beginning with HHPs. She said it was ‘very disappointing’ that SA was a party to international conventions but had not implemented them. Almost all SADC countries observed the ban on HHPs, except SA, which is the largest consumer of agrotoxins in Africa.”

Read the full article, “SA’s poor record on pesticides regulation in the spotlight”, here.

Read the Parliamentary Monitoring Group’s minutes of the briefing with the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture here.

19 May 2025

Media Alert: The South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins to brief Parliament on Pesticides and other Agrotoxins

Tomorrow, Tuesday 20 May 2025, the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) and the South African Human Rights Commission will make representations on highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) and other Agrotoxins to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture.

The parliamentary briefing follows public hearings convened by The People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins over two days in March 2025. The jury heard live testimony from survivors of pesticide poisoning and exposure on farms and factories, from trade unions, farm workers and dwellers, researchers and experts on the types of pesticides used by big corporations in South Africa and their impact on the health, mainly of poor and marginalised communities. The jury also heard testimony on international obligations that are being flouted by our government, their connivance with corporations bent on profiteering at the expense of health and general secrecy and withholding of information from the public relating to the pesticides being used in agriculture – many of them classified as HHPs.

The jury also received extensive documentary evidence and research done in South Africa and internationally, particularly in Europe, where the use of the named pesticides is prohibited – but their export to our country is encouraged.

The Tribunal was adjudicated by Judge Navi Pillay, Commissioner Philile Ntuli, and Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross. The briefing to parliament will be led by the three Jurors.

The briefing aims to enrich participatory democracy by enjoining the People’s Tribunal to ongoing parliamentary and government deliberations regarding agrotoxins. In February 2025, the Portfolio Committee considered, and committed in principle on the establishment of a multi-sectoral task team to conduct the necessary research on available and efficient alternatives to Terbufos and other HHPs, with a view to an effective ban on Terbufos in six months.

The Youtube livestream of the Parliamentary Briefing takes place on Tuesday, 20 May 2025, from 09h30 here: https://www.youtube.com/@ParliamentofRSA

ENDS

Contact for further information 

Please also visit https://agrotoxinstribunalsa.co.za/ for more information on the Tribunal, including recordings of the proceedings.