The ongoing violent taxi strike in the Western Cape has forced farmworkers and farmers to abandon their workstations and hide for safety.
Angelo Marman, the owner of Abitz farming in the Swartland, who recently experienced flood losses worth R150 000, said he had to send 12 workers back home fearing for their safety during the taxi strike.
“The taxi strike does not help, especially for a person like me who just experienced heavy floods which led to waterlogging on my farm. Cash flow is a problem because if we don’t deliver vegetables every day, we cannot make money.
“There is also a lot of work to be done on the farm as the seasons change. The soil needs to be prepared as spring approaches and there is a lot of planting that needs to be done, so any day lost costs us a lot,” he said.
From bad to worse
Marman said this week would be further disrupted by the public holiday (Women’s Day) on Wednesday.
The safety of the workers and everyone involved in farming operations was a high priority and they would resume once everything had settled down, he added.
Junior manager at Uitkyk grape farm outside Paarl, Audrey September, told Food For Mzansi that about eight workers were unable to reach work because of the taxi strike.
“Yes, our operations have been affected. However, not that much because we are not in the harvest season as yet but our workers who are outside the farm are unable to come through,” she said.
Children also left stranded
Labour rights programme coordinator at the Women on Farms Project (WFP), Denile Samuel, said the hardest hit people now were schoolchildren who rely on scholar transport to schools.
“In the wine sector, many seasonal women workers are at home until harvesting starts in October. Their children either walk or stay at home, depending on the distances to school,” she said.
Samuel said they could not provide data on which areas have been severely affected by the taxi strike.
The strike is expected to end on Wednesday, following a dispute between the Western Cape government, the City of Cape Town, and the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) on the by-laws that taxi drivers are allegedly not following, which has resulted in taxis being impounded.
Road closures infuriate Winde
Today, Western Cape premier Alan Winde said the provincial government held an urgent cabinet meeting to try to come up with a way forward regarding the taxi strike.
“I am really angry about some of the road closures and further disruptions. We had discussions over the weekend to try to come up with solutions. I am really angry that our learners cannot get to school, people cannot get to our health facilities, and social development issues are being hampered.
“We need to end this, we cannot negotiate while we see buses being burnt and roads being blocked, it is just unacceptable. Going forward we will continue with these meetings on a daily basis. It’s paramount that roads are safe and the citizens using the roads aren’t blocked,” Winde said.
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