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South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA)
16 June 2025
On June 16th, South Africans remember the many young people who died for our democracy today. 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, in October 2024, we received the heartbreaking news that 6 children had died as a result of exposure to the highly hazardous pesticide (HHP) Terbufos. For that reason, the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) welcomes the Cabinet’s decision on 12 June 2025, to ban Terbufos.
Despite a government policy adopted in 2010 to phase out HHPs and a regulation being issued in 2023 to restrict Terbufos, business continued as usual for the chemical industry who, in the week before the Naledi children died, were still insisting they have more time to prepare for any regulations. For industry, the death of our children due to their products is not an urgent matter.
This Cabinet decision, recognising our Constitutional imperative to put the child’s best interests first, marks the end of a long era where the chemical industry has undue influence over the regulation of their deadly products. The highest level of government has reined in corporate impunity and said that all South Africans, particularly children, have the right to a safe and healthy environment.
One down, 194 to go
The banning of Terbufos is a significant victory, signalling the beginning of the transformation of an agriculture system that is riven with conflict of interest, inequity, abuse of worker rights and the unchallenged hegemony of toxic chemicals. Civil society will continue to push for the immediate ban of all 194 HHPs currently registered in South Africa and rejects the notion of phase out periods subject to industry discretion, which is a fig leaf for industry delay and prevarication.
SAPToA is also calling for transparency in governance of agricultural toxins, beginning with making available a public database of all pesticides registered in South Africa as a constitutional right for all South Africans.
ENDS//
Contact: SAPToA Coordinator, Haidee Swanby 082 459 8549
