A Human Rights Watch report has discovered that at least two wine farms in South Africa are still using the illegal ‘dop system’ as part-payment for farm workers. The practice was prohibited in 1928, and its poisonous legacy is rooted deep in the social fabric of farm-worker communities in the Cape.

The two farms were not named in the report, and only about 250 workers were interviewed for the research.

Workers are also reportedly being denied many of their basic rights, and continue to live in harsh conditions where they are exposed to pesticides without adequate protection.

An interviewee is reported as saying:

If you don’t want the wine, then it’s your choice. Everybody is drinking except the children and the guy driving the school bus.

CEO of Wines of South Africa, Su Birch, has hit out strongly at the report claiming aspects of it are flawed. She claims that interviews had not been independently verified, respondents had been questionably selected and employers reactions had not been obtained.

The report claimed that workers were often without access to things like drinking water and ablution facilities – all labour regulation requirements.

Many farm workers were casual or seasonal workers and several of them did not know what rights they were legally entitled to.

When farm workers are ill or injured, as is fairly common, they are often refused legally required sick leave.

The report claimed that there simply aren’t enough inspectors to monitor labour relations on Cape wine farms.

It urged that “greater coordination within the government; more robust monitoring, resource allocation, and transparency,” were some of the steps now necessary to create a better working environment.

[Source: Fin24]