Famers in the Sundays River Valley region of the Eastern Cape are fearing for their lives and those of their farmworkers after a violent protest broke out in the area about a week ago.
According to local reports, the protest was being led by the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), which was demanding that workers’ wages be increased from the minimum wage of R23,19/hour to R30/hour, as well as a 30% cap on the number of immigrants employed on farms.
However, Hannes Joubert, CEO of the Habata Group, told Farmer’s Weekly that the protest seemed to have another agenda, as the majority of farmworkers in the region wanted to return to work, but were too afraid to do so.
“Everything around town has come to a standstill because of the protest, which means that people are going to run out of money [to buy] food to eat,” he said.
Theo de Jager, executive director of the Southern African Agri Initiative concurred: “We have received numerous reports from farmers in the region, who said their workers were being intimidated into staying at home, [with] busloads of people being brought into the region to join the protest, [while extensive damage] to farmhouses, infrastructure and equipment [had been reported].
“Many of the farmers and their families had also left their farms out of fear.”
The situation had become so threatening that the High Court in Gqeberha granted an interim interdict to a group of farm owners in the Sundays River Valley Local Municipality on Monday, 25 April 2022, which prevented protesting workers and their supporters from coming within a 500m radius of these farms.
De Jager said 35 policemen had also been despatched to the region to stabilise the situation, but said he feared they were ill-equipped to stand their ground against the protesters.
According Joubert, more than 1 000 people arrived at one of his farms on Monday, causing millions of rands of damage by plundering the farm and setting farmhouses, orchards and tractors alight.
One of his security guards was also critically injured and was fighting for his life in hospital, he added.
The protest could also not have come at a worse time, as it was the start of the citrus-picking season, which was the main commodity farmed in the region.
De Jager said the demand for higher wages was “ludicrous”, as the majority of farmers were already struggling to absorb the recent increase in the minimum wage.
Joubert, who employed about 1 000 seasonal and permanent farmworkers annually, added that many farmers had to cut jobs over the past two years due to increasing production and input costs, with these costs skyrocketing over the past year due to COVID-19-related trade restrictions, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, logistical problems, and rising fuel costs.
He added that the majority of his farmworkers were already earning more than the minimum wage, and received added benefits, too, with more than 90% of his employees recruited from the local area.
“The riots are bad for investor confidence and seriously damaging to relationships. You simply cannot continue with business as usual when something like this happens to you.”
Despite numerous attempts, Farmer’s Weekly was unable to get comment on the matter from SANCO at the time of publishing.