adminlabour movement in the country ‘has always been politicised,” a political analyst said on Tuesday.
The strike continued into its 7th day on Tuesday as farm owners still refused to accept workers’ demand for a daily wage of 150 rand (about 18 US dollars) from the current 69 rand (about 8 dollars) and better living conditions.
“The strike is based on genuine demands by workers and the wages within the agricultural sector have been far too low for a long time,” said Ralph Mathekga, the director of Clear Content Research and Consulting in Johannesburg.
“Strikes in South Africa often take a political tone due to the fact that the labour movement has always been politicised,” he told Xinhua.
The current daily wage of a farm worker can only buy five loaves of bread per day and cannot support a family of three.
Protesters are highlighting that their wage is not enough to help them escape poverty and send their children to schools.
The ruling party African National Congress has called for an end to the strike but unions are not backing down. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has vowed to “intensify the strike in all areas.”
The Building and Allied Workers Union of SA (BAWUSA) is calling on other provinces to join.
“The farm workers have taken a decision to intensify the strike, because the farmers are not serious about the negotiations to find a solution,” COSATU Western Cape provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said in a statement.
“There is always a potential for the strike to spread to other provinces,” Mathekga said.
However, he said the potential for the strike to spread to other province is not granted as production in South Africa agriculture is not spread evenly across all provinces. For example, there is no grape farming in Limpopo province.
“All this makes each province distinct in terms of farming activities. It is difficult to tell if the factors that triggered the strike in Western Cape Province would have similar effects in other provinces,” Mathekga said.
Mathekga insisted that the government create a conducive platform for negotiations to end the strike already affecting the economy.
“My call is that government should find a way to bring the farmers on board and try to work towards a solution,” he said.
“The labour unions on the other hand should try to get farmworkers to reach a temporary compromise solution, before the industry is adversely affected,” Mathekga added.
According to Mathekga, a long-term solution on wage agreements and improvements of the general conditions of employment in the sector is necessary to ensure that the farming industry recovers and maintain stability in the long term.
“Certainly, investors are of the views that government and labour unions are incapable of mediating this conflict between farmers and farmworkers. Evidence points to this assertion.”
Political leadership both from the Western Cape provincial government and the national government is necessary to diffuse the situation, Mathekga said. — Xinhua.
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