Deceptive omissions of total compensation to South African Ag workers, by Alex Duval Smith

Dear Janine Gibson

Both the writer and your headline editor deceive Guardian readers (South African Farmworkers Sacked…) by omitting, among other exculpatory facts, the total compensation that South African ag laborers already enjoy. That they are already some of the highest-compensated ag laborers in the world just doesn’t fit with the simplistic sensational narrative of oppression your omissions cleverly imply.

South African apple farmers are competing against highly mechanized enterprises in New Zealand, Washington State and against much lower wage and total compensation rates among workers in Chile and China This aggregate compensation, wages plus lodging in private bungalows, plus utilities and frequently meals to extended families, medical care, pension contributions, transportation (which Ms. Smith graciously alludes to in a toss-off line) are more generous, comprehensive and costly to the enterprise, than anything I am aware of in any ag sector of California.

Think about it, South African farmers are providing more costly and comprehensive social services to their laborers, while Ms. Smith sanctimoniously portrays them as cruel, heartless, overlords.

The Wine Farmers, especially, have consistently treated their workers well, shouldered massive monthly costs of a safety net provided elsewhere by State institutions, raised living standards for tens of thousands in high-quality bungalows. For this you ring the bell to boycott their goods?

The Human Rights Watch report extrapolated a few instances of deplorable conditions into an untrue, unfounded generalization of widespread abuse. That was further stretched into an unjustifiable accusation against Wine Farmers, and further inflamed by fact-slanting journalists. As a grapegrower in California, with business contacts in South Africa, I can personally guarantee that many vineyard workers in the US would gladly trade up to the lodging and total compensation already provided to their South African brethren, in a nanosecond.

Try looking inside a few shacks in South African townships, like Khayelitsha, then compare to some tidy, whitewashed bungalows in scenic surroundings on any wine farm, and tell me where the human rights abuses are occurring, and who (ANC?) should be shocked and appalled.

South African Wine Farmers especially, and most South African farmers generally, are to be commended, not castigated by the likes of Ms. Smith. Commended for humanely, ethically, diligently providing their workers a costly range of social services in higher quality housing than that available to millions of South Africans, and countless millions more around the world.

This sad, complex and ultimately uplifting truth contrasts vividly with the deceit of omission, the shrill shallowness of your uninformed freelancer. and your editorial complicity.

Edward Schulz
International Sales Manager
Premier Wine Cask ed@premierwinecask.com
Ofc: +1-707-257-0714, Cell: +1-707-477-2305, Fax: +1-707-257-0742
NEXTEL Direct: 117*205516*1

Tonnellerie Dargaud & Jaegle
Marcel Cadet

Barrel Associates–DeepToast, Water Bent, Fire Bent
1710 Soscol Ave, Suite 5, Napa, CA 94559 USA

Read the full article at: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/truckloads-south-african-farmworkers-sacked