Oliphant must explain dereliction of duty to Parliament
I have today written to the Chairperson of the Labour Portfolio Committee, Elleck Nchabeleng, to demand that Minister Mildred Oliphant appear before the Committee to explain her absence at critical junctures during the Western Cape labour unrest.
It has been reported that one person has already lost his life during the latest round of protest action. This tragedy may have been prevented if the Minister had acted to defuse the situation at the first sign of unrest.
At the height of the farm strikes in November last year, the Minister was in Switzerland attending the 316th Session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which ended on the 16th of November. She made no attempt to expedite her return home to deal with the crisis engulfing rural communities of the Western Cape, only arriving back in South Africa on the 20th of November.
The DA sees no good reason why another member of the Department of Labour could not have represented South Africa in Switzerland whilst the Minister returned home to deal with the more pressing issue of the farm strikes.
The DA will be asking questions in the Labour Portfolio Committee to establish the justification behind this decision, and to determine exactly what the Minister was doing in Switzerland between the conclusion of the meeting and her return to South Africa.
As the strikes recommenced on Wednesday of last week, she was again missing in action, reportedly attending an ANC NEC meeting.
Last week, the Minster's spokesperson, Musa Zondi, released a statement saying that "there is a lot of other things to do in the department. The minister has other work as well. She was in the Western Cape from Monday to Wednesday."
Reports suggest that whilst in the Western Cape, the Minister met with both Agri SA and representatives of organised labour.
In this regard, the DA intends to ask the Minister the following questions in the portfolio committee:
* With whom did she meet in relation to the on-going farm worker strike action during her visit to the Western Cape and what were the outcomes of these meetings?
* Did she visit any of the farm worker strike hotspots during her visit to the Western Cape; if not why not; if so, what are the details of the visit?
* Has she been in contact with the National Minister of Police and the National Police Commissioner regarding the violence committed by protestors; if so what are the details; if not why not?
* What "other things" did she have to attend to in the department and why was this work more urgent than the strike action?
As the Minister responsible for overseeing the sectoral determination that governs minimum wages in the agriculture sector, she should have taken the lead right from the start in mediating the labour disputes.
The Minister has not, since the strike action first started in August last year, made any effort to defuse the situation or reassure the workers that their concerns would be addressed. Her dereliction of duty has contributed to an escalation of the unrest that threatens the livelihoods of the 661 000 workers currently employed in the sector.
The Minister must explain to Parliament why she did not take immediate and decisive steps to avoid the resumption of strike action.
This week, she finally broke her silence to announce that her department is ready to mediate in the farmworkers' strike if all stakeholders are prepared to "engage in negotiations on good faith".
With the looming threat of the strikes spreading to the Northern Cape and other parts of the country, this may be a case of "too little, too late." Minister Oliphant has some explaining to do.
Statement issued by Sej Motau MP, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, January 15 2013
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