Review of farm wages imminent

The Department of Labour issued a notice indicating its intention to call on all parties to comment on the possibility to review the minimum wage for farmworkers. The minister has further called a meeting of the Commission for Conditions of Employment to advise her on a way forward.
The Coalition of Farm Worker Representatives from the areas on strike said in a statement:
“This strike is the initiative of the farm workers and no one else. No one organization or even group called it and no one can therefore call it off except the workers themselves. We reject with contempt the suggestion by among others Helen Zille that the strike is the outcome of interventions by outside forces. We recognize that some workers have decided to return to work for now and some to continue striking. Our immediate task is to support farm workers whether they are back at work or still striking.
“We have given the government until 4 December to institute the minimum wage of R150 per day and to concede to our other demands that farm worker are in the process of gathering. If they do not do so, 4 December will see the intensification of protest actions, both in scope and in militancy. Let there be no doubt. Farm Workers are not going to calm down and reconcile to the same old slavery conditions. There will be change!
“We reject the approach of the government, both provincial and national. They have consistently listened to the farmers rather than the farm workers. To date it is only the Minister of Agriculture that has shown an interest in the protests of the farm workers. However we say that farm workers will not be spoken through the media. We also reject any attempt to prescribe how and when negotiations must take place. We want to make this clear. The things we are demanding are not luxuries; they are necessities. They are not negotiable.
“We condemn the role of the police. They have shown their true colours as thugs with no respect for laws and even less for farm workers. We demand the unconditional release of all arrested comrades and for the intimidation and violence by the police to stop. We demand an immediate inquiry into the killing of the farm worker at Wolseley and De Doorns. We further demand an inquiry into the manner in which rural SAP police stations are used to protect properties of the land- owners whilst turning a blind eye to the ongoing human rights abuses against farm workers on the farms.
“The farmers and the police are acting in close concert to suppress the striking workers. They are fully to blame for any violence and disorder, and they have made the suspension of the strike impossible. We do not want violence, but we cannot say the same of the police. The farmers are continuing heaping racist and sexist insults on farm workers, and we will not accept this.
“We are also demanding that the Minister of Labour and the Minister for Rural Development and Land Reform join with the Minister of Agriculture to take active steps to heed the call of the rural poor who are demanding a living wage and a life of dignity. The Minister of Labour and the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform have been silent! Farm worker rights are labour rights and land rights! We have waited too long for change.
“From this meeting we will mobilize farm workers to form worker committees on every farm and in every town. Through these committees workers will speak and decide whether to call for a wine and fruit boycott and whether to proceed with land occupations. Farm workers, the unions and the NGOs are also preparing to take the struggle for a living wage and decent working conditions to the international social partners.
Farm workers are calling on other workers and unions, the faith community, the civil society to join them in the demand for a living wage and a life of dignity.”