By Xolani Adams
A 14-day “ceasefire” agreement has been reached between citrus farmers and community leaders in Kirkwood while farmers look into the issues raised by the protesting workers.
Community leaders met representatives of the Sundays River Valley municipality, SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) and the Farm Forum as well as the departments of labour and rural development and agrarian reform.
An agreement was reached at Tuesday’s meeting that the workers would suspend their weeklong protest — called in support of wage demands and that farmers employ fewer foreign workers — for 14 days.The strike turned violent earlier, resulting in one death, several injuries, a farmhouse, equipment, vehicles and citrus trees worth an estimated R50m being burned and water pipelines being vandalised
On Wednesday, provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said the situation in Kirkwood, about 82km from Gqeberha, remained tense.
He said youths had hurled stones and petrol bombs at passing motorists on Tuesday afternoon.
No injuries were reported
Police deployment has been beefed up,” he said.
Kinana said 38 cases had been opened over the past week, ranging from public violence and malicious damage to property to assault and murder.
The murder case related to the death of a farmworker, who was shot at close range, allegedly by a security guard.
Protesters shut down Kirkwood on Monday, blockading roads with burning tyres and clashing with armed security guards hired by farmers as well as police.
Benito Moses, 35, was found unconscious and covered in blood on a hill that overlooks the Habata Boerdery farm just after midday.
He was rushed to the Sunday’s Valley Provincial Aided Hospital but died later due to loss of blood.
A senior employee at the farm said the protesters, one of whom was armed, had tried to storm the property.
On top of the hill overlooking the Habata Boerdery, there were running battles between protesters and security guards for most of the morning.
Police fired rubber bullets to quell the protesters.
Vehicles were torched and three people were injured.
Scores of farmworkers, joined by residents, have protested for almost a week in the Kirkwood area, demanding an hourly wage increase of R6.81 and a 30% limit on the hiring of foreigners.
Workers are paid R23.19 an hour but want this increased to R30.
The Farm Forum was adamant the wage hike was impossible.
Tensions between the workers, represented by Sanco, and affected farm owners escalated on Wednesday after representatives of the forum failed to show up to receive a petition from the protesting workers.
The forum eventually accepted the petition.
Sanco provincial secretary Tony Duba said it had emerged that the cause of the protests was that farmers in the citrus belt were allegedly hiring 95% of foreigners and just 5% of locals.
The locals, Duba claimed, were hired only during the harvesting seasons.
This has been vehemently denied by the farmers.
“The workers also raised the fact that the last time they had received pay increments was in 2018, after the widely reported farm protests,” Duba said.
He said workers also only started work at 10am due to transport issues.
This resulted in them being paid lower wages.
Duba said it had been agreed that farmers would look at all the issues raised by the workers.
Community leader Siyabuleka Qekema said some workers were not happy that the strike had been suspended.
“The minimum wage is R23.19 but it’s not enough.”
Sundays River Valley Citrus Company chief executive Hannes de Waal said it was agreed that workers would suspend their strike for 14 days.
The farmers, in turn, had agreed to look into the workers’ demands because some of the grievances raised did not affect all farm owners.
“We are happy with yesterday’s [Tuesday] meeting and hopefully it will lead to a positive outcome, as farmers of the [Sundays River] Valley always strive for.”
He said farmers understood the effects of the minimum wage but had tried throughout the years to meet the community halfway through development programmes.
“We had explained to the communities of the valley [the effects of] the minimum wage, and because of the pandemic and the incidents of the Ukraine and Russia war it has brought a negative impact on the industry.”
De Waal said it was concerning that criminal elements had taken advantage of the protest.
“There had been a lot of damage done with actions similar to what transpired in KwaZulu-Natal last year.
“We hope that the police will continue to be co-operative.”
He said the total damage caused during the protest was estimated at R70m.
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