Committee formed to represent workers in Kirkwood conflict

A committee has been formed to represent workers in the Kirkwood and Addo regions following the recent violent riots.

While a planned meeting for yesterday between disgruntled farmworkers, community members and farmers to negotiate a solution so that one of SA’s biggest citrus-producing regions can operate again did not go ahead as scheduled, stakeholders have now opted to form a committee to represent the labourers.

This was according to SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) provincial secretary Tony Duba.

The meeting, which would have been held to negotiate a solution to the unrest which resulted in millions of rand in damages, saw discussions between farmworkers and other stakeholders to form a formal committee to represent the farmworkers.

“We needed to give back the authority to the workers themselves,” Duba said.

According to Duba, stakeholders including representatives from the department of employment and labour and experienced commissioners from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration met the farmworkers and a chief negotiator was appointed.

“Instructions have been given to the chief negotiator,” Duba said.

Earlier yesterday, Duba said the scheduled negotiations, expected to have started at 10am, would not go ahead as planned as there was still no indication from the farmers where they would meet.

After the meeting, Duba said the chief negotiator would contact the farmers and arrange a meeting for today.

Most of the unrest, which came to an end a week ago, centred on the townships of Moses Mabhida and Nomathamsanqa, where workers demanded an hourly wage increase of R6.81 and a 30% limit on the hiring of foreign nationals.

While tensions remain high, Duba said Sanco would continue to offer support to the communities of Sundays River Valley and the citrus belt in their fight for justice for farmworkers and their families.

“Our preoccupation as the leadership of Sanco is the speedy resolution which would be in the best interests of the farmworkers and which would seek to improve their working conditions and their wage structure, which has been exploitive and archaic,” Duba said.