Draft charter will take on inequalities, says black association
Poor farm workers pose challenge for wine industry
July 25, 2007
By Ronnie Morris
Cape Town - The Western Cape, the heart of South Africa's wine industry, is, along with Gauteng, one of the country's most developed provinces.
Its human development index (HDI) was 0.77 in 2003, compared with 0.68 for the country as a whole. Yet this statistic obscures large-scale inequalities that characterises the province, according to the draft wine industry transformation charter.
The charter says a 1994 study found: "The Western Cape exhibits the highest HDI in South Africa. At the same time, there are severe inequalities … The white population reflects an HDI that would compare to that of the five most developed nations in the world, while coloured people in rural areas reflect an HDI comparable to the lowest in the world."
A 2004 study by agricultural economists from Stellenbosch University showed that less than 1 percent of winelands were in black hands and that there had been very little improvement in workers' living conditions over the preceding decade.
This means that earlier studies remain relevant.
The draft charter said the condition of farm workers in the province were characterised by:
n Low levels of education and literacy. The median level of schooling among farm workers in 1996 was less than six years, while literacy was estimated to be 20 percent among adult farm workers.
n Poor housing conditions. In 1995 less than 50 percent of worker households had indoor running water and only 45 percent had access to flush toilets.
n Poor health conditions. The incidence of infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis (TB), was high among farm workers, with TB incidence in farming areas two or three times higher than in urban areas.
n Low wages. According to the 2001 census, the average remuneration of full-time farm employees in the Western Cape was R1 189 a month. This average masks considerable inequality in wages between men and women performing similar work.
n Insecure land tenure. The Extension of Security of Tenure Act (1997) was intended to provide security of tenure for farm workers living on the land. Alongside evictions that were legal under the act, arbitrary evictions continued.
The draft charter said democracy brought farm workers substantial new legal rights, including the right to strike, better access to mediation services, minimum wages and regulations governing working conditions. New tenure laws also provide more security of land occupation.
However, the charter said there was a widespread perception that employers were reluctant to comply with labour laws; permanent labour was substituted with temporary, part-time or seasonal labour; and there were increases in labour contracting or outsourcing.
Nosey Pieterse, the president of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry (Bawsi), said the group had played a prominent role in highlighting social conditions in the wine industry. Setting targets to eliminate the inequalities would be the next phase. This would be a negotiated outcome, but Bawsi would make sure short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives to transform the industry would be set within a year of adopting the charter.
Pieterse the final draft charter would soon be on the desk of agriculture and land affairs minister Lulama Xingwana, who would comment, make changes or send it back to the drawing board.
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