Solidarity, the trade union, on Saturday welcomed Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane’s decision to look into problems in veterinary research.
Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann said the decision was a political victory for agricultural research.
”After weeks of protest action and petitions to Parliament, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the Department of Agriculture, we are pleased Minister Ngubane noticed the seriousness of the crisis within agricultural research”, he said.
Ngubane’s announcement came after he had talks with the ARC, the University of Pretoria and the National Research Foundation earlier in the week.
Hermann called on Ngubane to also look into problems within all sectors of agricultural research.
”Agricultural research is experiencing a huge crisis at the moment,” he said. ”The situation at the ARC is so bad that they can’t deliver the necessary services that both farmers and other agricultural institutions expect to get from them.”
Hermann said his union was unhappy with the low salary increases offered to its members at the ARC, as well as the deterioration of agricultural research.
The number of researchers at the ARC dropped by more that 50% over the past 10 years, he added.
”At some of the ARC’s institutions there are no researchers left for certain specialised areas. The last tuberculosis researcher left the institute at Onderstepoort near Pretoria earlier this year.”
Solidarity handed a petition regarding its grievances to the Office of the President earlier this week.
The union is scheduled to march to the offices of the ARC on Friday September 12.
”We expect more that 1 000 researchers and people from various agricultural organisations to take part in the march,” Hermann said.
”The problems at the ARC are so serious that if its not solved soon South Africa can have a large-scale famine on its hands.” — Sapa