Thousands Of South African Farm Workers Protest Hunger-Wages,
Vineyards Set On Fire
By Countercurrents.org
09 November, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Thousands of striking farm workers in South Africa's biggest table grape-growing region set fire to vineyards to protest against what they call "hunger wages".
From Johannesburg a news report [1] said:
A farm owner was arrested after he allegedly fired a shot at protesting farm workers in De Doorns on Tuesday, Western Cape police said.
About 8,000 farm workers gathered to protest in De Doorns.
"The situation is calm. They are slowly dispersing and more police have been deployed to maintain order", said police.
The N1 highway was closed between Touws River and De Doorns on Monday when farm workers gathered on the road.
Over 30ha of vineyards were destroyed in the protest.
Western Cape police said the cause of the protest was likely a wage dispute.
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions in the Western Cape said it supported demands by farm workers and residents of De Doorns for a living wage and decent living conditions, with basic services and proper housing plans.
"Many of the farm owners have been exploiting the farm workers for too long in the agricultural sector, and this needs to come to an end," provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said.
"People cannot be expected to live on their knees, whilst the farm owners profit handsomely from the exploitation."
He called on workers and residents not to resort to violence.
Another news report [2] said:
Striking farm workers set fire to more than 30 hectares of vineyards to protest against what they call "hunger wages".
Six people were arrested for public violence, and a farm owner was arrested for attempted murder after firing on thousands of protestors when violence broke out on Monday.
"The wages here are too small, R72 (£5) a day. You cannot buy anything with that money," strike leader Shaun Janca told Daily Maverick on the phone from De Doorns, in the Hex River Valley.
"You must talk to the farmers." he said in Afrikaans. "The money that they pay us is nothing. We work our whole lives but still we have nothing. We are working for what? For what?"
The strike started on October 30 when farm laborers stopped work and delivered a memorandum to the Western Cape government demanding higher wages, they said. But they claim the government only paid attention when the vineyards started to burn.
"The workers were very unhappy about some of the comments made by the MEC of Agriculture of the Western Cape," said Braam Hanekom, chairman of People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (Passop), which is part of the negotiations between farmers and workers. "He said the workers' demands were unclear, but the workers said they had already handed him a memorandum a week ago when the strike started last Thursday.
"People are hungry, they are frustrated and they are tired. They want to work but they want to see some improvement in their working conditions," Hanekom said.
A fragile peace has since descended in the region as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration arbitrates between strikers and their employers.
Business Day reported that Marius Fransman, the ANC's provincial leader, accused Van Rensburg of supporting farm owners and "not the disgruntled farm workers, and calling in helicopters for reinforcements to fight unarmed laborers".
"It is shocking that one of the most affluent and financially viable produce areas in our country are paying farm workers a pittance; Workers seem not to share in the profits there for decades now and the situation became untenable," Fransman said. "Some time ago, the ANC again raised the importance of farmers and organized agriculture to stop discriminating against these workers. In this area, farm workers still feel the brunt of Apartheid abuse on farms," he said, and added that it was "completely unacceptable that these things go on unchecked". (He did not mention that the conditions of mine laborers in ANC-owned regions such as the North West.)
"The laborers are working for a minimum wage of R69.39 per day. Per week it is R346.95 a week and the workers can't work for that amount. They say it is a 'hunger wage', activist and local labor advisor Petrus Brink said.
"The poor people and the workers are getting poorer. They can't support their families and can't take care of their children. That is why they are becoming so aggressive, because the R346.95 is not even enough for them to survive for a week," Brink said over the phone from the offices of the Surplus People's Project in Citrusdal, where he consults labor issues.
"What the workers demand at De Doorns is for the commercial farm owners who are producing for the export market to pay them more. They are demanding R150 per day," Brink added. He said many of the workers come in to do seasonal work from areas such as the Eastern Cape, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and even Somalia. "This creates a condition where permanent workers feel that their employment is under threat - that they might lose their permanent jobs.
The laborers point out that the table grapes and citrus farmed in the area are intended for the export market. "The farm owners make large sums of profit, but then there is no return for the workers. The farm owners reason they don't have to bargain for farm labor because there is already a pool of cheap labor, and so if the permanent workers from the Western Cape don't want to work for that amount, the farmers do have access to another labor market," Brink said.
Workers from outside of South Africa often don't have permits or passports, which enables some unscrupulous farmers to exploit the vulnerable migrant labor force. This in turn creates xenophobia because the local labor market feels threatened and under pressure.
With a cheaper migrant labor force prepared to live in squatter camps, farmers have been less inclined to offer housing, education or other social amenities. A report issued by Human Rights Watch in August 2011 Ripe with Abuse detailed a litany of rights abuses practiced by some local farmers.
The report documented evidence of housing on farms unfit for living; laborers being exposed to fertilizers and pesticides without the proper safety equipment; a lack of access to water while working in dehydrating conditions; the lack of toilet facilities for workers; and the undue pressure put on workers to stop them from joining unions. It also detailed threats of evictions made against residents who had stayed on farms for long periods of time.
"The wealth and well-being these workers produce shouldn't be rooted in human misery," Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said when the report was released. "The government and the industries and farmers themselves, need to do a lot more to protect people who live and work on farms."
The Western Cape government has known about simmering tensions at places such as De Doorns for a long time. "There is a lot of tension, but this isn't the first time. There is a lack of government (political will)," Brink said. "We have made many presentations in the portfolio committee (for Rural Development and Land Reform) in parliament in Cape Town. We presented this to the portfolio committee that the housing conditions are very bad. Farm owners are paying the minimum wage and you can't even take the minimum wage and upgrade your own home. We had these presentations and we also worked with Human Rights Watch."
Brink and the NGOs asked the Rural Development and Land Reform committee to get members to visit local farms because farm owner representatives had said the activists were lying about the conditions there.
"The members of the committee came and they filed their report and said what they saw was shocking. They closed two of the farms and demanded that farms upgrade housing and revise labor practices," Brink said.
That was more than a year ago.
Source:
[1] News24, “Farmer held for shooting at protesters”, Nov. 6, 2012, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Farmer-held-for-shooting-at-protesters-20121106
[2] guardian.co.uk, “South Africa: striking workers burn vineyards in protest over 'hunger wages'”, Nov. 8, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/08/south-africa-strike-vineyards
Comments are moderated
