Public hearings will begin on Thursday evening to gather the opinions of farmworkers and their employers on labour conditions, the labour department said.
Spokesman Page Boikanyo said the first hearing would be held for Western Cape farmworkers at 6pm in Worcester.
Farmers in the province would attend a separate hearing at the Worcester town hall at 10am on Friday.
According to a schedule on the department's website, hearings would take place in KwaZulu-Natal on November 24, Limpopo on December 6, Free State on December 8, North West on December 9, Northern Cape on December 11, Mpumalanga on December 12 and Eastern Cape and Gauteng on December 13.
Sixteen Western Cape towns were hit by violent protests this month over farming wages and working conditions, resulting in two deaths and extensive damage to property.
The protests started with table grape harvesters in De Doorns, who were calling for wages of R150 a day. Most earned between R69
and R75 a day.
Workers agreed to suspend their strike until December 4, on condition that the employment condition commission (ECC) look at the sectoral determination for agriculture.
The ECC advises Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant on wages and other conditions of employment.
As part of the strike suspension agreement, Oliphant published her intention to cancel the current sectoral determination, which sets minimum monthly wages at R1503.90.
The department also published a notice of an investigation into the farm sector on November 15, inviting interested parties to make written representations before the end of the month.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Western Cape said various parties were meeting in Cape Town on Thursday morning to negotiate wages and working conditions, under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said Agri SA was among those representing farmers in the negotiations, while Cosatu and others were representing workers.
A labour department official would sit in on the meeting, being held at the provincial labour office from 10am.
Oliphant's spokesman Musa Zondi said the minister would not be in attendance as the CCMA was facilitating on labour's behalf.
“The agenda is to have a joint submission between the two parties, business and labour/employee representatives for submission to the ECC,” he said.
“What the parties agree on forms part of what is presented to the hearings.”
Once the hearings had been concluded, the ECC would compile a document and make recommendations to Oliphant. - Sapa