Because there are black farmers who will lose out so we should be concerned about them the logic is that the strike should come to an end and farm workers should back off from their demand for R150.00 a day, is this what this article is about? I am sure many South Africans are peace loving people including farm workers and the first thing the article does is to say "violent farmworkers strike" ingnoring the fact that farmwokers are subjected to physical, emotional and intelectual violence by the farm owners and the capitalist system daily and we do not hear or see this making headlines. Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:09:13 +0200 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Black farmers - Bleak future
Black farmers' bleak future
Nashira Davids, The Times,
Johannesburg, 15 January, 2013
If the violent farmworkers' strike continues, nearly all the
black farmers cultivating deciduous fruit in Western Cape might
have to close
up shop.
Yesterday the strike for higher wages intensified with 40
people arrested for public violence, and two for house-breaking
and theft.
Ismail Motala, spokesman for the Deciduous Fruit Development
Chamber, said there were too few black farmers - many of whom
are
"cash-strapped".
"Within the next few months, if we in the industry
don't see eye to eye, at least 95% of our farmers will have to
close their
doors," said Motala.
"We cannot risk this in our country. We cannot lose any
more farms. We cannot go back to where we were before 1994."
There are about 200 black farmers specialising in deciduous
fruit in South Africa - about 80% of them in Western Cape.
Motala said black farmers have a limited market and only a
brief period in which to bring in the harvest.
"If we do not harvest and become productive our markets
are going to go to South America - our competitor," said Motala,
who farms
in Wolseley.
The chamber acknowledged that working conditions on many
farms were "unacceptable" and that workers were underpaid.
"We need to stop the violence, intimidation and
lawlessness . all of us, including the government, need to get
back to the
[negotiation] table. But we need to discuss this in an
atmosphere everyone is
comfortable in."
On Sunday union federation Cosatu's provincial secretary,
Tony Ehrenreich, called for the "economic boycott of bad
farmers" who
"want to continue paying a wage of R69 [a day]".
Anton Rabe, chairman of Agri SA's labour and social policy
committee, said his organisation did not represent "bad
farmers".
"We don't see any prosecutions by the department of
labour; we see high levels of compliance with labour inspections
by the
department.
''We've got third-party ethical audits we have to comply
with to be able to export."
He conceded that there are farmers who are "not playing
ball" but he said it is disingenuous to say that most farmers
are
"bad".
Rabe said that, though work on some farms had been disrupted
about 90% of farms were "operating fairly normally".
Police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said 16
men had been arrested for throwing stones and petrol bombs at
the police, and
for stoning cars.
Yesterday Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi tweeted:
"We call on every South African to show support by boycotting
all products
produced by workers on strike. Please don't drink SA wines."
From:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/01/15/black-farmers-bleak-future
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