Date: 02/12/2002
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mdladlana: Launch of sectoral determination for agriculture
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF LABOUR, THE HONOURABLE MEMBATHISI MPHUMZI SHEPHERD MDLADLANA, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE SECTORAL DETERMINATION FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR, Elsenburg Farm, Western Cape, 2 December 2002
Honoured guests, comrades, compatriots, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
The days of darkness are over. The rays of dawn have begun to light our horizon. The light of freedom is challenging the departing darkness of apartheid. The dark days of despair have given way to the season hope." These are the words of our President Thabo Mbeki when he launched the Election Manifesto of the African National Congress in 1999. Indeed this determination is bringing hope to thousands of farm workers in our country. I announced my intentions in 1998 when I came in as a Minister of Labour that I would determine minimum wage for both domestic workers and farm workers. This process has taken us 4 years. It started with the investigations and research by the Director-General of the Department of Labour, then the Employment Conditions Commissions. Both these processes consulted extensively with social partners and the public in general through public comments and public hearings. We acted together in conditions of social discipline to give birth to a South Africa of freedom and prosperity and security for all. For the first time farm workers are receiving a focused attention of government. We want them to enjoy better conditions of peace and dignity. With our Social partners line Saapawu, Fawu and Agri-South Africa we committed to sound and stable relations in our farms. We were inspired by this new patriotism and I am certain that inspired by this new patriotism we can truly say: South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We agreed that every South African must be able to organize freely and to join trade unions and employers' organisations without disturbing peace and stability in our farms.
This sectoral determination therefore represents a significant milestone and a major breakthrough in redefining the relationship between farm workers and farmers in South Africa. This relationship is unique. It is only on a farm that this relationship is likely to stretch back for generations and where the relationship stretches beyond the work place. In no other business are the worker and employer's social set-up so intertwined and working conditions so dependent on seasons. These conditions create a distinct rhythm on the land that are alien to the urbanite. The most important aspect of this relationship is the vulnerability of the farm worker. This is in part based on the isolation of farms and farm workers but primarily it emerges from our colonial past and apartheid legacy that alienated a great many people from the land, leading to the exploitation of rural communities.
The low levels of education and high levels of malnutrition that clearly point to the abject poverty that is experienced in the agricultural sector, emerge from this alienation. No legislation dealing with the agricultural sector at whatever policy level can ignore this fact. This determination cannot and should not be seen as the only instrument available to government in addressing the legacy of apartheid in the agricultural sector. Other departments, notably Land Affairs and Agriculture, are also key players in this. However, my Department has to take responsibility for improving the lot of the farm worker in terms of labour-related issues, particularly working conditions.
This determination is not only part of a programme that seeks to address poverty and displacement in the agricultural sector. It serves to give effect to a commitment that our government has made towards a better life for all our people. The state carries the responsibility of protecting vulnerable workers to ensure that they have the same basic rights and are afforded dignity.
This is not the first intervention I have made in order to protect vulnerable workers, nor - I can assure you - will it be the last. The Sectoral Determination for the Agricultural Sector follows that for domestic workers. Earlier in the year, I also promulgated a determination for the contract cleaning sector as well as establishing a provident fund for the private security sector. These Determinations, I must stress, represent a step in a deliberate and systematic attempt to transform our labour market landscape.
My interventions recognise the need to create an enabling environment for national and international investment and employment, creating economic growth by setting wages at levels that will not negatively impact on the creation of employment. Our labour policy fundamentals are geared towards productivity gains for the employers and greater employment mobility for workers in terms of skills development, it is about improved safety conditions in the workplace that would benefit both workers and employers, it is about effective social security coverage and it is about ensuring an equitable workplace. This is just as true for agriculture as for any other sector of the economy.
The road leading to the promulgation of the Sectoral Determination for the Agricultural Sector has been long and it does not represent an end to the journey, but is merely another milestone. To look at some of the earlier milestones it is necessary to go back to 1994 when - for the very first time - a government that had the interests of all South Africans at heart was elected. The next step was the implementation of a labour regime that included the promulgation of a "new" Basic Conditions of Employment Act enabling me to aggressively address the plight of vulnerable workers such as domestic and farm workers.
Our report on our findings confirmed that some to the established assumptions about farm workers' vulnerability. Some of the findings included:
*
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mdladlana: Launch of sectoral determination for agriculture
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF LABOUR, THE HONOURABLE MEMBATHISI MPHUMZI SHEPHERD MDLADLANA, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE SECTORAL DETERMINATION FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR, Elsenburg Farm, Western Cape, 2 December 2002
Honoured guests, comrades, compatriots, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
The days of darkness are over. The rays of dawn have begun to light our horizon. The light of freedom is challenging the departing darkness of apartheid. The dark days of despair have given way to the season hope." These are the words of our President Thabo Mbeki when he launched the Election Manifesto of the African National Congress in 1999. Indeed this determination is bringing hope to thousands of farm workers in our country. I announced my intentions in 1998 when I came in as a Minister of Labour that I would determine minimum wage for both domestic workers and farm workers. This process has taken us 4 years. It started with the investigations and research by the Director-General of the Department of Labour, then the Employment Conditions Commissions. Both these processes consulted extensively with social partners and the public in general through public comments and public hearings. We acted together in conditions of social discipline to give birth to a South Africa of freedom and prosperity and security for all. For the first time farm workers are receiving a focused attention of government. We want them to enjoy better conditions of peace and dignity. With our Social partners line Saapawu, Fawu and Agri-South Africa we committed to sound and stable relations in our farms. We were inspired by this new patriotism and I am certain that inspired by this new patriotism we can truly say: South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We agreed that every South African must be able to organize freely and to join trade unions and employers' organisations without disturbing peace and stability in our farms.
This sectoral determination therefore represents a significant milestone and a major breakthrough in redefining the relationship between farm workers and farmers in South Africa. This relationship is unique. It is only on a farm that this relationship is likely to stretch back for generations and where the relationship stretches beyond the work place. In no other business are the worker and employer's social set-up so intertwined and working conditions so dependent on seasons. These conditions create a distinct rhythm on the land that are alien to the urbanite. The most important aspect of this relationship is the vulnerability of the farm worker. This is in part based on the isolation of farms and farm workers but primarily it emerges from our colonial past and apartheid legacy that alienated a great many people from the land, leading to the exploitation of rural communities.
The low levels of education and high levels of malnutrition that clearly point to the abject poverty that is experienced in the agricultural sector, emerge from this alienation. No legislation dealing with the agricultural sector at whatever policy level can ignore this fact. This determination cannot and should not be seen as the only instrument available to government in addressing the legacy of apartheid in the agricultural sector. Other departments, notably Land Affairs and Agriculture, are also key players in this. However, my Department has to take responsibility for improving the lot of the farm worker in terms of labour-related issues, particularly working conditions.
This determination is not only part of a programme that seeks to address poverty and displacement in the agricultural sector. It serves to give effect to a commitment that our government has made towards a better life for all our people. The state carries the responsibility of protecting vulnerable workers to ensure that they have the same basic rights and are afforded dignity.
This is not the first intervention I have made in order to protect vulnerable workers, nor - I can assure you - will it be the last. The Sectoral Determination for the Agricultural Sector follows that for domestic workers. Earlier in the year, I also promulgated a determination for the contract cleaning sector as well as establishing a provident fund for the private security sector. These Determinations, I must stress, represent a step in a deliberate and systematic attempt to transform our labour market landscape.
My interventions recognise the need to create an enabling environment for national and international investment and employment, creating economic growth by setting wages at levels that will not negatively impact on the creation of employment. Our labour policy fundamentals are geared towards productivity gains for the employers and greater employment mobility for workers in terms of skills development, it is about improved safety conditions in the workplace that would benefit both workers and employers, it is about effective social security coverage and it is about ensuring an equitable workplace. This is just as true for agriculture as for any other sector of the economy.
The road leading to the promulgation of the Sectoral Determination for the Agricultural Sector has been long and it does not represent an end to the journey, but is merely another milestone. To look at some of the earlier milestones it is necessary to go back to 1994 when - for the very first time - a government that had the interests of all South Africans at heart was elected. The next step was the implementation of a labour regime that included the promulgation of a "new" Basic Conditions of Employment Act enabling me to aggressively address the plight of vulnerable workers such as domestic and farm workers.
Our report on our findings confirmed that some to the established assumptions about farm workers' vulnerability. Some of the findings included:
*
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