Ehrenreich, Fransman are forcing destructive resolutions

M RIORDAN-BULL takes unnecessarily long to raise a few aspects about the behaviour of Tony Ehrenreich where the farmworkers’ strike is concerned. And it rather looks as though a dispute situation has arisen between a lot of these workers and Cosatu (Western Cape branch) and their union over the matter of the strike.

I am surprised that Riordan-Bull seems to have missed the critical aspect of Ehrenreich’s tactics. Has he forgotten so soon that both Ehrenreich and Marius Fransman cannot tolerate the fact that the DA runs the Western Cape?

I have no doubt that they don’t care how they achieve making the province ungovernable, even if it means the farmworkers lose all employment opportunities as the fruit trees and vines, farms, chicken farm buildings and equipment, etc, are all destroyed. Treat those workers like fools and hidden-agenda fodder and there might be some surprises in store for Tony and Marius. The fact that the farmworkers could have a justifiable case for an increase in their wages doesn’t justify a destructive means to force an outcome, rather than properly negotiate it.

Those two gentlemen might need to be rather careful if they really believe that the ANC and the government would wish to see the economy of the Western Cape destroyed. They would certainly clearly demonstrate that they have no capacity to be truly constructive leaders. Destructive, certainly, but that is not the way to run a country.

As in the case of the recent mineworkers strike and the Marikana massacre, the farmworkers have become suspicious of the allegiance, both of Cosatu and their union – and Agri SA. If non-inclusive negotiations are held, with no worker representatives being present, that is clearly asking for trouble.

But maybe that would be an advantage in the long term, ie, to break the power of Cosatu and some of the more powerful unions.

Milnerton