ACDP says analysts predict job losses but are silent about future violent protests where wages are not ‘liveable’. Must we wait for headline-producing actions before people’s desperation is prioritized?

MEDIA RELEASE
11 February 2013

ACDP Member of Parliament and the party’s chief whip, Cheryllyn Dudley, today commented on farm worker lay-offs as analysts fear the sector would see hundreds of thousands of job losses over the next five years.

Dudley says that “Productive farms are invaluable and the plight of farmers who courageously continue in the face of many challenges and circumstances out of their control is not only a concern but of paramount importance. The ACDP does however recognise that the wages of farm workers are presently not ‘liveable’ and an increase in the minimum wage is therefore inevitable – not without consequences but inevitable!”

Findings by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy indicate that even a R105 per day wage is not liveable.

“It would be great if wages did rise voluntarily but this is not always the case and where there is no minimum wage or an unrealistic one, it is easy for a desperate person to agree to work for any remuneration not taking into account the consequences.

“The ACDP does not - and would never - condone violence, burning and destruction of people and property and sees it as all the more tragic that often, without such headline-producing actions, peoples desperation is ‘swept under the carpet’ and clearly not prioritised.

“The lay-offs we see happening already - were expected – and I hope they are a genuine effort on the part of these farmer/businessmen and women, to resuscitate their struggling businesses and not a reactionary response. Not because their frustrations are not understandable but because a reactionary response will help no-one!” According to calculations by the SA Institute of Race Relations, the agricultural sector has already shed 331000 jobs over the past 12 years, from 969 000 in 2000 to 638000 in 2012.

“Analysts have predicted the job losses but appear to be silent about future violent protests where wages are not ‘liveable’”, Dudley said.

“The ACDP understands that the difficulties and frustrations are many on all sides of this sensitive issue and the cost to everyone in South Africa will be tragic if we don’t get it right! We must, do everything possible to avert the otherwise inevitable revolutionary violence”, Dudley added.