Gustav Thiel
GIANT wine co-operative KWV’s bid to be converted into a company is becoming increasingly controversial as industry stakeholders accuse it of trying to hang on to more than R1,6-billion worth of assets, accumulated during apartheid years.
KWV’s members – 4 751 wine farmers – form an exclusive white club with an enormous stake in the country’s wine industry.
Several influential people in the industry, including wine farmers and journalists, this week condemned KWV’s plans, saying it goes against the spirit of reconciliation and development in the country.
More than a dozen people interviewed by the Mail & Guardian preferred to remain anonymous, saying the issue was extremely sensitive.
Wine consultant Michael Fridjhon, who is indirectly involved in talks between the government and KWV, said the co-operative’s plans could have a huge impact on the future of the wine industry in the country.
One wine journalist said if KWV’s attempts succeed it would ensure that “past white privilege would be turned into present assets”.
More than 80% of KWV’s 4 751 members voted on December 6 last year to convert from its present co-operative status to a company.
This means that the co-operative will function as a company from April this year, its assets being put directly into the hands of the wine farmers.
KWV has, however, been locked in a legal dispute over the issue since December 12. Six days after the vote to convert, Minister of Land Affairs and Agriculture Derek Hanekom obtained a delay from the supreme court in its ratification of the scheme in terms of which the transformation is arranged. The dispute is due to be decided on March 25, if it is not settled out of court.
Analysts in the industry have been up in arms about the co-operative’s attempts to privatise its assets, built up in the apartheid years through special tax breaks granted to KWV as a statutory body in terms of the Wine and Spirit Control Act.
A task team was set up by Hanekom in December seeking clarity on the legality of KWV’s decision to privatise its regulatory function. A representative for Hanekom, Herman Rademeyer, said the minister was not in principle against KWV’s plans. However, he must ensure that the development of the wine industry is not hampered by KWV.
Spier Wine Estate’s “official ambassador”, Jabulane Ntshangase, was the only person willing to openly criticise KWV. Ntshangase, who contributes to various wine publications and is a member of South African Airways’s wine selection panel, told the M&G: “I can categorically state that KWV has done absolutely nothing for the development of the wine industry in South Africa.”
Said Ntshangase: “It is actually totally unbelievable that there is only one qualified black wine-maker in the whole of South Africa.” She is Carmen Stevens, who qualified in 1996 from the University of Stellenbosch and is currently employed by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery.
As from this year, Ntshangase and well- known wine author John Platter will be running a wine development programme. Each year, four of 10 students admitted to the Elsenburg Agricultural College at the University of Stellenbosch must come from a previously disadvantaged community.
Said Ntshangase: “We aim to be aggressive in implementing affirmative action in the wine industry. It would, however, be a great pity if KWV succeeds in its plans to maintain the status quo of white privilege in the industry.”
KWV’s group director of public relations and human resources, Theo Pegel, told the M&G he saw very little wrong with the racial imbalance in the wine industry. “It is a simple fact of life that in almost all of the wine-producing countries of the world the wine-makers are almost exclusively white. I think that KWV in the past did plenty to initiate development programmes and that our future programmes will ensure that the industry develops sufficiently.”
He added that “People must realise that the profile of a co-operative is not very high internationally”.
According to a statement released this week by the Department of Land Affairs and Agriculture Director General, Frans van der Merwe, the dispute was discussed by KWV, Hanekom and the department at a January 10 meeting.
There it was resolved that the minister would appoint a committee to investigate the regulation of the wine and distilling industries. It was also agreed that all parties would co-operate in an audit of the assets controlled by KWV.