A farming project in South Africa is helping deaf people build skills and find jobs

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, farm workers are busy tilling the soil and planting tomatoes and lettuce. Despite the hive of activity, there is silence around the park.

Most people here are deaf and communicate using sign language.

They are members of the Voiceout Deaf farming collective, started by entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria, to create a platform where deaf people can develop their skills in agriculture and find sustainable work.

Victoria, who has a hearing disability herself, understood perfectly the challenges faced by deaf people when competing for opportunities with their counterparts who do not face the same challenge.

While studying at the Tshwane University of Technology in the country's capital, Pretoria, Victoria had to attend classes with a hearing partner, as the university could not make the lectures accessible for her.

It is an all-too-common challenge for deaf people, according to Victoria.

“The government does not have facilities for communication (for deaf people). A lot of deaf people did not finish school. They cannot afford to travel far to reach schools, so normally they decide to leave school early,” said Victoria.

Across South Africa, there are 44 schools for the deaf, offering sign language as a subject and using it as a medium of instruction.

Most are based far from where the students live, which sometimes leads to them dropping out of school as families struggle to afford the transportation costs.

Victoria, who used to work for Standard Bank, decided to leave her corporate job and start Voiceout as a way of allowing deaf people to gain agricultural skills.

“I make things simple for them, it is like a family when they are here. They become very much happy when they are here but when they go outside of this space, it becomes difficult for them,” she said.

For Sibongile Maake, the opportunity to learn agriculture in a space where co-workers can easily communicate with her in sign language was transformational.

It has also afforded her an opportunity to earn a living and rely less on the welfare disability grants that are paid out by the government.

“I’m happy working here, it’s (a) pleasure working here in the farm. I’m working slowly but surely and I am learning while also getting a salary. I can do things for myself, I can afford myself,” said Maake.

Another worker, who said in sign language his name was John, said the challenges of communication reduced his chances of getting a job but the Voiceout Deaf project became a lifeline for him.

“Communication is always a barrier, so coming here at the farm is very much better because they are able to communicate in my own language so it makes life much easier for me,” said John.

He and other workers are responsible for various activities at the farm including cleaning, ploughing, planting and harvesting the produce. The demand for their vegetables was so great that Voiceout Deaf has taken on two other farms, where John and his colleagues also work.

The project is breaking even: the farms currently supply some of the local supermarkets and chain stores with fresh produce.

In other South African provinces like Limpopo and North West, provincial governments are looking at farming as a source of training and employment for disabled people.

The farming sector is emerging as a solace for those with disabilities who also face the dire levels of unemployment in Africa’s most developed economy.

As she goes around giving instructions monitoring activities on the farm, which consists of 10 greenhouses, Victoria laments how difficult it often is for people using sign language to understand the jargon of developed industries.

The Pan South African Language Board is responsible for setting the country's standards for sign language. A constitutionally mandated body responsible for promoting the development and use of South African languages, it recently scored a victory by having Parliament approve sign language as South Africa’s 12th official language.

However, the board sometimes struggles to keep up with fast-evolving business language, Victoria says.

“The difficulty is that sign language has not developed to an extent that it covers technical jargon used in various sectors. It is the same in agriculture. There are certain technical words used that are there in spoken language but not in sign language," she explains.

But beyond changing official attitudes, Victoria wants to inspire change in the farmers themselves.

“We need them (the deaf farmers) to think out of the box about agriculture. They need to be empowered to understand that agriculture is involved in the production of other products like toothpastes, perfumes, medicines. This is where we have to improvise and find ways to communicate with them in the simplest way possible,” said Victoria.

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People do farming works at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Matebogo Victoria shows lettuce grown from hydroponic farming at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria, right, communicate using a sign language with co-workers as they line up strings for tomatoes at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Workers stringing tomatoes at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria communicate using a sign language with co-workers at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Workers communicate using a sign language whilst tilling the soil at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria communicates using a sign language during an interview with The Associated Press at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Protesters confronted federal officers in Minneapolis on Thursday, a day after a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

The demonstrations came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump's administration dispatched 2,000 officers and agents to Minnesota for its latest immigration crackdown.

Across the country, another city was reeling after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon.

The killing of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday set off a clash between federal and state officials over whether the shooting appeared justified and whether a Minnesota law enforcement agency had jurisdiction to investigate.

Here's what is known about the shooting:

The woman was shot in her SUV in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Videos taken by bystanders and posted online show an officer approaching a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.

The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the officer gets struck by the SUV, which speeds into two cars parked on a curb before stopping.

It’s also not clear what happened in the lead-up to the shooting.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the SUV was part of a group of protesters that had been harassing agents and “impeding operations” that morning. She said agents had freed one of their vehicles that was stuck in snow and were leaving the area when the confrontation and shooting occurred.

No video has emerged to corroborate Noem’s account. Bystander video from the shooting scene shows a sobbing woman who says the person shot was her wife. That woman hasn’t spoken publicly to give her version of events.

Good died of gunshot wounds to the head.

A U.S. citizen born in Colorado, Good described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom." Her ex-husband said Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home when she encountered ICE agents on a residential street.

He said Good and her current partner moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Missouri.

Good's killing is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.

Noem said Thursday that there would be a federal investigation into the shooting, though she again called the woman’s actions “domestic terrorism.”

“This vehicle was used to hit this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon, and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy.”

Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and referred to Good's death as “a tragedy of her own making.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters Wednesday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had watched videos of the shooting that show it was avoidable.

The agent who shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Jonathan Ross has been a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured this summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.

Federal officials have not named the officer. But Noem said he was dragged by a vehicle in June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.

Court documents say Ross got his arm stuck in the window as a driver fled arrest in that incident. Ross was dragged 100 yards (91 meters), and cuts to his arm required 50 stitches.

According to police, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting outside a hospital Thursday afternoon.

Minutes later police heard that a man who had been shot was asking for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers went there and found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were wounded in a shooting with federal agents.

Police Chief Bob Day said the FBI was leading the investigation and he had no details about events that led to the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting. When agents identified themselves to the occupants during a “targeted vehicle stop,” the driver tried to run them over, the department said. An agent fired in self-defense, it said.

There was no immediate independent corroboration of that account or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle’s occupants.

Trump and his allies have consistently blamed Tren de Aragua for being at the root of violence and illicit drug dealing in some U.S. cities.

Drew Evans, head of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Thursday that federal authorities have denied the state agency access to evidence in the Good case, barring the state from investigating the shooting alongside the FBI.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded that state investigators be given a role, telling reporters that residents would otherwise have a difficulty accepting the findings of federal law enforcement.

“And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem,” Walz said.

Noem denied that Minnesota authorities were being shut out, saying: “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”

Dozens of protesters gathered Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis federal building being used as a base for the immigration crackdown. Border Patrol officers fired tear gas and doused demonstrators with pepper spray to push them back from the gate.

Area schools were closed as a safety precaution.

Protests were also planned across the U.S. in cities including New York, New Orleans and Seattle.

Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed.

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a motorist earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

People participate in a protest and vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)