Report condemns 'dismal' South African wine farm conditions

I am sure there is are bad working conditions at some places in the RSA, but at far as African countries are concerned, I don't think they are the worst. So I am impatiently waiting for the next report on... Zimbabwean working conditions.
And by the way, I can't judge by the light of my two visits in the Cape winelands but what i do remember is an overload of workforce ostensibly doing nothing or often having a very long pause indeed at the vineyards we visited and staring at visitors.
People who are hired because one has to in the new RSA system. This is another aspect of the Cape region - may be not the most important, but this is what one sees there too. No one ever makes any report about it, apparently.

I think I heard Su Birch on the Today program - if was her she was terrible - very "old style" South African...if it was her she seemed to be coming from an apartheid SA not the current SA.

Very weird - anyhow no lame excuses A la "Big Tobacco" - the wine estates need to get their houses in order and stop exploiting people. They charge premium prices for their wines and should be paying premium wages. If they don't clean their act up they'll get another boycott... It sure takes a culture a long time to change!

Very interesting that someone based in the Gauteng province in South Africa, is clearly an anc member and comments on working / living conditions of people on farms in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, the only opposition-run province out of 9 (me smells a rat here). Clearly the anc cannot handle the way in which their oppostion manage to get so much right, and now are using Human Rights to pursue their ugly agenda.
Shocking!!
Egypt, Syria, Libya - next should be the anc in South Africa!! Dictators play dirty, and zuma's luitenants now grasping at straws to try to fight their political agenda....!!

There is a solution of course. If UK and Other EU supermarket chains, would pay the wineries above the cost of production,and maybe allocate a fund to development of the workers from the colonies, there may be an end to this blight. However the EU consumer is part of this condition by accepting that 2.99 Pound wines, that is mostly exchequor tax, is a product they are happy to drink. So the UK and EU taxes and Supermarket profit, and the
complicent consumer are all part of the problem. Unsustainable purchase practises, have a consequence.

I have not seen the full report and would like to read it first before I make further comments.

My first reaction as a small wine farmer outside Stellenbosch is, that I have done a lot to improve the working and living conditions of my workers. So are many of the other farmers that I know, but we are perfect and the wine industry in our country is in the midst of a recession which is not making it easier for us.

We subscribe to the IPW-standards and maintain high standards of safety.

Most workers are alos not interested in trade unions because of their political affiliations.

This report is not good for the image of a country that is committed to progress and reconciliation.

There are also many farmers that have entered into Empowerment deals with their workers and the SA Government to uplift these people and to provide them a ral asset which will stand them in good stead over the long term.

However, our Government is not supporting us like the European governments and we have to make it work on our own.