The minimum-wage law designed to protect farm workers has cost many of them their jobs and their living conditions have deteriorated, argued Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, in the party’s monthly Internet newsletter, Umsebenzi.
Nzimande named tomato giant ZZ2, which dismissed 1 000 workers after an illegal strike at one of its Limpopo farms in April, as an offender. The workers were protesting against housing and transport deductions that left them before the minimum wage was instituted. Nzimande said that, despite negotiations and legal action, nothing has been done to help them.
Michael Bagraim, ZZ2’s lawyer, told the Mail & Guardian the SACP’s remarks were vicious and uninformed. ”We have followed the due legal process in handling the ZZ2 affair throughout. The strike was illegal … and the dismissals were fair,” he said. ”The dispute between the parties still has to appear before court and we are still discussing a settlement.”
Mazibuko Jara, SACP spokesperson, said negotiations between the parties were taking too long. He said the SACP’s annual ”Red October Campaign” will, this year, mobilise farm workers all over South Africa. A rally was held last Sunday at the ZZ2 farm in Duiwelskloof.
The South African Human Rights Commission released a report last month on farm workers’ living conditions, indicating that many farm workers were being denied basic constitutional rights.
Research at the National Labour and Economic Development Institute into the implementation of the minimum wage shows that the government would need 10 000 inspectors to enforce the law.