Latest Resources
17 June 2025
Cabinet ends corporate impunity: bans highly toxic pesticide Terbufos that killed primary school ...
Press release: South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) 17 June 2025 On June 16th, South Africans remember the many young people who died for our democracy. We also remember the young people who died through neglect as a result of policies that preference profit over people’s lives, such as occurred in Naledi, Soweto when, […]
20 May 2025
SAPToA to brief Parliament on Agrotoxins
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 […]
18 March 2025
Pesticide poisons on farms, poisons in the streets: People’s Tribunal puts government, agrarian f...
People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins to expose agriculture’s ugly secrets Press Release: South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins For immediate release 18 March 2025 On Human Rights weekend, the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins will put the government on trial in the court of public opinion for gross dereliction of its constitutional duties to protect […]
4 March 2025
UnPoison’s 2025 update to South Africa’s Highly Hazardous Pesticide Database
On the 21st of February, Unpoison SA published an update of the database of highly hazardous pesticides registered for use in South Africa that they initially published two years earlier. Shockingly, unlike other countries, this database has hitherto not been publicly available. Instead of the government housing this database in a transparent manner, as is […]
30 January 2025
“Palesa’s Brave Discovery” violates children’s and consumers’ rights
SAPToA reports CropLife and Food for Mzansi for weaponising children in comic book & for false and dangerous advertising Press release by the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins The South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) has submitted substantive complaints to the South African Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Regulatory Board, calling for […]
5 December 2024
Ban Terbufos and HHPs or face legal action Minister Steenhuisen, says civil society alliance
17 June 2025 UPDATE: Following the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA), which was held in March this year, the three jurors, Judge Navi Pillay, Commissioner Philile Ntuli, and Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross, made a presentation on highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) and other agrotoxins to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture on 20 May. Watch the […]
1 November 2024
Civil society coalition says: Heads must roll for Terbufos regulatory failure
Press release: South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins 31 October 2024 A coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions working together to expose the harmful reality of pesticides in South Africa mourns the tragic deaths of six children — Monica Sebetwana, Ida Maama, Isago Mabote, Njabulo Msimanga, Katlego Olifant, and Karabo Rampou — in […]
30 September 2024
Perilous GM wheat to be grown in SA: transgenic crop plants increasingly given a biosafety-free pass
—— Press release ———- 30 September 2024 Genetically modified (GM) wheat, purported to be drought tolerant, is set to be grown in field trials in South Africa during 2025 and 2026, at three locations in the Western Cape (near Moorreesburg, Protem, and Swellendam) and one in the Northern Cape (near Hopetown), following an application for […]
14 May 2024
ACB’s legacy podcast: celebrating 20 years of resistance against GMOs in Africa
This legacy series provides an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the past two decades of ACB’s advocacy and activism, with a particular focus on resisting the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into our agricultural and food systems in Africa. Our first podcast in the series is hosted by ACB Research and Advocacy Officer […]
5 February 2024
Game-changer for regulation of genome editing and new tech as SA’s Ag Minister overrules Industry...
PRESS RELEASE 5 February 2024 The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), welcomes the final decision taken by the South African Minister of Agriculture Ms Thoko Didiza, in terms of section 19 of the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act of 1997, to uphold the October 2021 decision of the Executive Council (EC) that the risk assessment […]