EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE
Socially responsible wine producers can work harder for transformation
Focus is on housing and conditions of employment but few initiatives for equity in land or business operations. writes Michael Fridjhon
Transformation — a much over-worked word in the South African context — has been an uncomfortable and little mentioned subject in the world of the Cape wine industry. It’s not difficult to understand why. Wine farming is integrally linked to land ownership and many of the properties are homes imbued with generations of family history. There is an implicit understanding that the mere mention of the word may raise the spectre of land grabs: no other mechanism could apply, given the improbability of legitimate land claims of the kind more common elsewhere in SA. This does not mean that the more thoughtful of the country’s producers have disregarded the importance of social responsibility. Well before 1994, the more forward thinking — particularly those living in the areas closest to Cape Town — had begun to address issues such as workers’ housing, sanitation, schooling, creches and general conditions of employment. With the end of apartheid and the export boom that followed the era of ...
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