Ann Crotty
The majority of seasonal farm workers across the Hex River Valley rejected Cosatu’s call for a return to work yesterday, and the situation across the region remained tense with continuing violent flare-ups in Swellendam and around Ceres.
Analysts said yesterday that the situation for the farmers would become critical as the harvesting period approached. At present, seasonal workers are required to prune the grapes and prepare for the harvesting, which begins early in the new year.
The hostile response to Cosatu’s call was attributed to poor communication by the unions involved and suspicions that the government would not deliver on its undertaking to increase the minimum wage rate.
Mercia Andrews, who is an organiser with Women on Farms and is involved in the committee that is co-ordinating the demand that seasonal workers be paid R150 a day, told Business Report last night that many people had misunderstood the terms of the agreement underpinning the suspension of the strike.
“The feedback we are getting is that the farm workers have rejected the call to suspend the strike and they are questioning the agreement process. It appears that many of the workers were particularly unhappy about agreeing to return to work at a daily rate of R80,” Andrews said.
Late yesterday, Andrews said members of the co-ordinating committee had just finished a meeting at which it had been decided to visit all the areas involved in the strike activity and “determine what the people there want”.
In De Doorns, where violence flared up on Wednesday evening following a meeting to discuss the terms of the suspension of the strike, protesters told Business Report that they would not return to work for a rate of R80 a day.
“It is very tense today, nobody went to work, we are still waiting for our R150,” one De Doorns worker said.
The majority of workers in Robertson also refused to heed the call to return to the farms. Enoch Welile Hohlo, an organiser with Mawubuye, told Business Report that there was a lot of confusion about the agreement, as there had been little feedback from the unions.
“We need to sit down and inform the people what is going on… to restore order. The people want to know that negotiations are continuing and that this is not just another empty promise from government.”
Welile Hohlo, who has some reservations about the affordability of the R150 demand, added that the call to return to work at the R80 rate had not been well received by the workers. “If they said R100 it would make a difference.”
Meanwhile, Cosatu has dismissed calls by Premier Helen Zille for the army to be deployed as emotional and said: “The army cannot solve a problem caused by low wages and exploitative conditions of employment.”