Barry Streek
The number of regular farm workers in South Africa decreased by 2% a year over the past five financial years, but the number of seasonal workers increased slightly, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza has disclosed.
She warned that there are difficulties in obtaining reliable statistics on farms, including commercial farms.
However, her department had conducted a survey of 10 000 commercial farms and this showed a decline in the number of farm workers.
She also disclosed that the Land Bank had lent R171,5-million to previously disadvantaged individuals during the first nine months of 1999. Didiza, who was replying to questions tabled in Parliament by Flip Nel and Kobus Dowry of the New National Party, said the number of regular farm workers had decreased from 628 925 in 1994/95 to 581 144 in 1998/99.
Over the same period, the number of seasonal workers increased by 0,8% from 289 810 to 299 614. While the number of skilled farm workers increased from 60% to 65%, farmers indicated there was an increase in the use of contract workers.
According to three studies of the Western Cape fruit and wine industries, one of the largest users of casual and seasonal labour, it was found that casual and seasonal employment had increased significantly since 1992, while permanent employment had remained largely unchanged “despite a considerable rate of expansion in current and anticipated output”.
The same trend could be expected in the citrus industry in the Western and Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, as well as the subtropical fruit industry in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
Asked what the most important reasons for this trend were, Didiza replied: “The unease among employers, resulting from the perception that certain legislation had a negative impact on the sector, meant that employers who perceived these acts as inflexible were not only reluctant to hire but in some cases to actively shed labour.”
Adjustment after deregulation of the industry when the marketing legislation took effect also meant a changing direction in production and location which also had an impact on labour.
“While new employment was created, it was initially at a rate slower than the erosion of the then existing employment opportunities. This lead to a reduction of the total agricultural labour force,” she said.
Didiza said the Land Bank had received 8 000 applications for loans from previously disadvantaged people between January and September 1999, and all but 1 850 had been approved at a cost of R171,5-million.
What it all means is that despite the encouraging trends in Land Bank loans this year, and despite the growth in the sector, agriculture is providing fewer permanent jobs than before, and this is contributing to the national decline in permanent jobs.