By Mariska Botha
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, says a breakthrough is imminent in talks between organised agriculture in the Western Cape, unions and her department over the violent wage protests at De Doorns in the Hexriver Valley. Joemat-Pettersson intervened in the matter earlier this week after talks between unions and Agri Wes-Cape reached a dead end.
The workers are demanding a wage increase of R150 up from R65 per day. The meeting between stakeholders lasted late into yesterday evening.
Joemat-Pettersson says she's hopeful that the protests will be called off by Tuesday. She says a crises meeting will be called tomorrow with all role players on national level. "We will not allow the situation to get out of control. We'll keep the situation under control and by tomorrow we'll take a proposal to the Minister of Labour and that proposal includes sectoral determination for a change in the minimum wage of the farm workers,' she says.
Meanwhile, unions say after a week's protests no results were yielded and that the actions will continue.
Cosatu says it believes that other farm workers in the country will join in the protest action. "The government has a responsibility to get involved in raising the wages. The government can set that R150 through the employment conditions commission so it can make it law. The government must now tell workers it's going to do that because that's the only way we think the protest will come to an end where the government stands up and says we're going to force the employers and work with the labour to ensure that that R150 or a living wage is promulgated for the agricultural sector," says Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich.
Agri Wes-Cape could not be reached for comment.
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