Pay, BEE prominent issues for producers
COMMERCIAL farmers in the province want to decide how much to pay their workers.
Eastern Cape farmers requested yesterday's Agri EC annual congress to engage with Agri SA to determine labour wages, saying it was time they decided how much to pay and not the government.
Agri EC committee member Dougie Stern said an international labour organisation was busy with a comprehensive study on labour relations on South African farms. This study could finally put claims of violations of farm workers’ human rights to bed, he said.
Stern said because only 13% of farm workers belonged to unions, they were seen by the government as vulnerable. He said farmers wanted to avoid the establishment of a bargaining council for farm labour relations at all cost.
He reminded farmers that they had to, by law, submit employment equity plans or face hefty fines on their annual turnover.
Agri EC president Ernest Pringle said Agri EC “appeals to our rulers to reconsider their approach to our commercial farmers, and to re-examine their attitudes towards racial issues – particularly transformation and affirmative action – before it is too late, and they plunge our country into an economic crisis”.
“The truth is that BEE and affirmative action drive away investment. BEE has never accomplished what it was intended for – all it has done is make a handful of skilled black politicians extremely rich. Therefore it is time to add our call to that of the South African Institute of Race Relations that our government do away with race-based affirmative actions.
“Instead of race, we must focus our attention on alleviating poverty and uplifting poor communities, particularly through providing skills training and proper education,” Pringle said.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who was the keynote speaker, said there were too many graduates with BAgric qualifications who ended up unemployed.
“People will always need to eat and food production and food security are critical today and will always be into the future.
“Land distribution is about giving black South Africans access to business in agriculture. Black South Africans were deprived of access to many opportunities for many years, including accessing land as a resource. That deprivation cannot continue as normal business.”
Mantashe said proper mentorship and skills transfers were needed to improve productivity on black-owned farms.