Human Rights Watch (HRW) found the on-site housing unfit for habitation, exposure to pesticides without proper safety equipment, lack of access to toilets or drinking water while working and barriers to union representation, according to the report published by the Guardian yesterday. It also pointed out that the farm workers are among the lowest wage earners in the country.
South Africa has laws guaranteeing wages, benefits and safe working and housing for workers and other farm dwellers. But the government has largely failed to monitor conditions and enforce the laws, HRW claims.
Its 96-page report, ‘Ripe with Abuse: Human Rights Conditions in South Africa's Fruit and Wine Industries’ alleges, "despite their critical role in the success of the country's valuable fruit, wine and tourism industries, farm workers benefit very little, in large part because they are subject to exploitative conditions and human rights abuses without sufficient protection of their rights."
Housing for some workers is claimed to be uninhabitable. Many workers live on farms with family members as part of their employment arrangement. Their land tenure rights are protected under legislation enacted in 1997. Yet more than 930,000 people are estimated to have been evicted from South African farms between 1994 and 2004, claims the HRW.
South Africa's wine farms have a painful history. For centuries, workers were paid partly in alcohol in the so-called DOP system (it was implemented in 1793 and continued till independence in 1994 and is now illegal-editor), with dangerous health and social consequences. One of the warning signs legally allowed to be printed on the bottle of alcohol is ‘Don’t Drink and Walk’ as many times the workers getting the free wine and alcohol get drunk and are liable to get knocked over by the passing traffic. HRW, however, found these payments had generally disappeared now.
South Africa is the world's seventh-biggest wine producer, filling the equivalent of more than 100 million (9-liter) cases a year. The industry is mainly concentrated in Western Cape Province. International tourists enjoy tastings, cellar tours and weddings at vineyards amid glorious scenery between the beautiful towns like Franschhoek and Stellenbosch.
Challenging the modality and objectivity of the Report, Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), an Association of the producers, focusing largely on exports, commented, ‘most of the 260 farm workers interviewed were identified by unions and NGOs who have a vested interest in presenting the worst of cases. The report plays down the significance of the wine industry's substantial direct financial and indirect contribution to improving working conditions through WIETA, Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association and fair trade and empowerment schemes.” She rues that to all but the most serious readers, the report negates the work of those who should be allowed to stand out as role models to their peers.’
‘There are many farm owners who comply with all legislation and go way beyond it. For every poor house on a farm, I can show you loads of good ones and some exceptional ones. Wine farmers are currently providing housing for over 200,000 workers, representing an investment of billions of Rands. Our industry is working hard to correct the wrongs of the past, and we accept that there is much work to be done,’ she said.
South Africa has been ruled by whites for centuries till it won independence in 1994 from the British. Most of the vineyards are owned by whites as they have been passed down through generations of white owners. Workers are still invariably black or mixed race, although there are a growing number of black owned farms, especially co-operatives.
During a visit by a group of wine producers to India earlier this year, one of them had taken umbrage to delWine reporting about the working conditions when her own winery in fact, claimed to be working substantially to improve them by setting aside a small amount per bottle towards improvement in their lot. Many of the producers I have met during my several visits to South Africa affirm with humility and emotions that the conditions have been, in fact, poor but they have been working consciously to improve them over the years-sending their kids to schools, looking after their health, giving them place to stay at the farm etc. being some of them.
With hundreds of years of subservience and only 17 years into freedom, the workers may have a long distance to go. The HRW report, despite the apparent histrionics in parts should act as a reminder to the government and the industry that a lot of work still needs to be done and as Su Birch concedes with matching rhetoric, ‘even one case of abuse is one too many.’
‘We condemn out of hand any and all human rights abuses on wine farms. Our disappointment in the bias of the report is in no way an indication of our support for inhumane practices. It expresses our concern that trade and consumers all over the world could become alienated from South African wines. We call on the Government to partner the wine industry in accelerating reform and in rooting out problems,’ she concludes.
Birch voices the opinion of perhaps the whole South African wine industry when she says that ‘the report had the potential to do great harm to the industry that is already battling in the face of a strong rand and a protracted global economic downturn, without the benefit of the government support that its global competitors enjoy. Ironically, it could also jeopardise the jobs of the very people it claims to be championing.’
Subhash Arora
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