Agriculture stakeholder engagement meeting to address attacks on foreign nationals

Press release by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DALRRD), 22 April 2015 

Business Sector stakeholders and Organised Labour had a constructive meeting with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, General Bheki Cele, to discuss and share ideas to address the recent attacks on foreign nationals in various parts of the country. The meeting also aimed to find ways to prevent the violent attacks from spreading into the farming communities where foreign nationals are also employed.

Present at the meeting were representatives of the following sector stakeholders:

• African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (AFASA)
• The Building and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (BAWUSA)
• Agri South Africa (AgriSA)
• National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (NERPO)
• National African Farmers’ Union (NAFU)
• TAU SA
• South African Sugar Association (SASA)
• Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA)
• Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz)

The meeting highlighted the root causes of the attacks some of which are not based on facts such as the perception that Immigrants take jobs and do not contribute to the economy of the country. 

Phile van Zyl of the ZZ2 farms disputed the perception that farmers employ foreign nationals for cheap labour. He said that the farm employs a diverse group of workers and promote the attitude of consideration of all groups of people. 

General Bheki Cele condemned the attacks on foreign nationals saying, “It’s embarrassing; it’s dehumanising; it’s humiliating; it doesn’t matter how much pain we feel as South Africans but we can’t act this way on the human race. We can’t do what our people did to the foreign nationals in Durban”. 

The resolutions are as follows:

1. The organisation  of  a  summit which  will  gather  other  government  departments and stakeholders to  further  discuss  issues related  to  labour,  working  condition,  the employment of foreign nationals and other issues in the farming sector. 
2. The leadership of the country need to promote diversity and show the people of South Africa that we cannot tolerate other groups on conditions. 
3. DALRRD  must  deliver  on  the Agricultural Policy  Action  Plan (APAP) and  the  National Development Plan (NDP) to fast track job creation and help prevent bad perceptions on foreign nationals. 
4. Rural Development Programmes must be revitalised.

The department will embark on a series of Public Participation or Imbizo following a directive from the Presidency for all government departments to address xenophobic attacks in their sectors.