The 114 000-member Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) condemned agricultural organisations AgriSA and the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) on Tuesday for their ”denial of the abuse of farm workers” by farmers in South Africa.
In a statement on Tuesday, Fawu came out in support of claims by Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana that abuse of workers by farmers is rife, and that workers are being inhumanely evicted from farms.
The claims, some made during the minister’s Christmas message last year, have raised tensions between AgriSA and TAU — which mainly represent South Africa’s large-scale commercial farmers — and Xingwana.
Last month, representatives of the two organisations walked out ahead of a planned meeting with the minister, and on Monday, a meeting set between the parties to discuss her claims was cancelled at short notice by Xingwana’s office.
Fawu said on Tuesday Xingwana’s comments had been a ”correct and true reflection of the suffering and conditions of indignity experienced by farm workers”.
It said the treatment being experienced by farm workers includes beatings and killings, evictions and mass dismissals, and poor working and living conditions.
Fawu spokesperson Dominique Swartz told the South African Press Association her union’s general secretary, Katishi Masemola, condemned AgriSA and TAU for walking out of the meeting with the minister, the ”general attitude” of farmers and their ”attacks” on Xingwana. — Sapa