Farmers in clash with government
Aziz Hartley, The Mercury
August 02 2010 at 07:27AM
Farmers are heading for a showdown with the government following heated arguments at a weekend summit on farm labour in Somerset West.Read more »
Agri-SA, a national body representing commercial farmers, quit a two-day government summit on farm workers at the weekend in protest against a list of "radical" resolutions which they termed as a "kick in the teeth" to the farming industry.
The adopted resolutions included a moratorium on farm evictions, provision of basic services, compliance with basic conditions of employment, a minimum wage and regulation of labour brokers. Agri-SA's participation is crucial to implementation of the declaration.
But Agri-SA dropped a bombshell when they stormed out the summit, calling the declaration a set of "pre-determined radical political views".
Things were going well on Friday when Agri-SA president Jan Moller, President Jacob Zuma, Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi and Premier Helen Zille all told about 1 100 summit delegates about the need to improve conditions on farms.
During their testimonies, three workers spoke of their terrible working conditions, abuse at the hands of their employers and years of work without benefits.
But on Saturday, as the programme director read out the resolutions from the commissions, Moller took to the podium and announced Agri-SA's withdrawal from proceedings.
"We cannot support the resolutions. It ignores the good relations between employers and employees. We've decided as Agri-SA that we will participate in other initiatives between ourselves and relative departments as well as government, but we've decided to terminate our (summit) participation with immediate effect," said Moller, who later called the declaration "populist".
He was loudly jeered and booed from the floor.
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