The country’s R14 billion sugarcane industry is in the grip of crisis and its emerging black farmers, thousands of workers and communities dependent on the sector are feeling the squeeze.
Naidoo said that Safda’s members were more vulnerable than their commercial counterparts because they have “little to no financial buffers and do not have ready access to capital”. Thabo Mtshali who farms cane under an irrigation scheme in the Pongola region, in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal, told City Press times were tough.
That is bad news for the thousands of workers affected but also for small-scale farmers who depend on the company’s support staff, according to the Food and Allied Workers’ Union . Fawu deputy general secretary, Mayoyo Mngomezulu, has called on government to intervene regarding the Tongaat Hulett restructuring.