Workers proud owners of Cape Wine Estate

The DRDLR stands on the cusp of history following successful inroads into one of the country’s most untransformed industries, which saw farm workers acquire a 45 percent stake of Solms Delta Wine Estate and a portion of the 54 hectares property in the picturesque Franschhoek outside Cape Town.

In what flies in the face of transformation 98% of the land in the wine industry still belongs to the white community.

As part of the DRDLR’s ground-breaking 50/50 program, Minister Nkwinti, last December, launched the R65 million transaction between Wijn de Caab Trust (the farm workers and dwellers’ empowerment vehicle) and the established wine farmers - Professor Mark Solms and Richard Astor. The NEF, which facilitated the transaction, retains 5%.

The deal makes provision for a six member board, one each for the NEF, Solms, Astor and the farm’s chief executive, and two representatives for the workers.

Minister Nkwinti said the 50/50 policy was among government’s interventions for economic prosperity for the rural poor.

Susana Malgas, one of the beneficiaries and board member of the Wijn De Caab Trust, said as a result of the transaction, life on the farm has greatly improved, as workers now have a say in the affairs of the farm, have acquired new skills and their children’s education is paid for.

Malgas, a former domestic worker, has become a qualified wine and heritage guide.

“In the past we did not have enough money to send our kids to university after they finished school. We don’t want our kids to be like us when we were growing up,” she said.