Today's Labour News

The New Age reports that the chairperson of the portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Rosina Semenya said forestry workers were treated like slaves in some parts of the industry, with no worker benefits

Semenya said on Sunday directors of firms operating in forestry will be invited to Parliament to explain why conditions of workers in the sector were not improving.

“It is concerning that more than 20 years of democracy people of the southern Cape still worked like slaves with no benefits in the sector,” Semenya said yesterday.

The last meeting of the parliamentary committee next month will be with company directors, owners and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, she said. “What the committee has heard about what is happening in the southern Cape is unacceptable. The sector cannot refuse to transform,”she said.

“We cannot have a situation in our country where companies want to extract resources and yet not empower communities.

It is a shame for our democracy that our people still live in slave-like conditions,” she said. The committee conducted public hearings on the National Forests Amendment Bill in Knysna on Friday. It heard from the communities that women contractors in the forestry industry were being culled and that the living conditions were those of “bush people”.

Semenya said the Bill would address this anomaly and that it would promote participation of women-owned contractors in the industry.

“The valuable input from these communities will assist the process of amending the bill greatly.”

She said the conditions as described by communities were similar to those found in other forest areas throughout the country. The last hearings will be conducted in Limpopo and Mpumalanga next month.

The original of this report appeared on page 13 of The New Age of 23 October 2017

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