Member statement by Ellen Prins, ANC MPP, to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, November 8 2012:

When the DA has no answer for protests, it claims it is politically motivated.

This is the latest in the on-going saga in the Hex River valley where farm labourers around De Doorns have for many months bemoaned the exploitation they experience there.

People are paid a pittance by unscrupulous labour brokers and farmers, while they happily export top earning grapes for the tables of the rich around the world. They claim to be abused, assaulted and maltreated.

These claims were evident in the reactions seen on television where people were shot at by and even assaulted in full view of cameras.

The contrasts are very stark between the thousands of poor black and coloured farm workers against the farm owners in this lucrative and profitable industry.

The fact that this DA government has so far only met with farmers and advanced the interests of these entrepreneurs speaks volumes. Even when three MEC's rushed this week to De Doorns, the first thing they did was to meet the farmers and not the aggrieved workers. After all: It was the workers that had been on various strikes for weeks now and not their employers.

No wonder the workers rejected the MEC's when they eventually found time to go to the workers!

Is it any wonder that farm workers across the Western Cape feel alienated from this government - like refugees? The DA does not care for poor and vulnerable workers, but only the rich in big houses surrounded by leafy growth!

Issued by the ANC Western Cape, November 8 2012

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