The Facts

South Africa is one of the largest global producers of wine with a total of 100 200 hectares of land being used for grape cultivation. The Wine Industry was initially created using slave labour and the same exploitative cruelty was used to force people into work during the system of apartheid. Since the miracle transition of power in 1994 many of the Grape-pickers of the Western Cape have been driven into further poverty.

At the time when mechanical harvesters were first imported into South Africa a female grape picker would earn as little as R95 (15 US$) per week of work. Each one of these machines only requires one driver and thus deprives 200 people of their jobs. Not only have these people lost the meager means to live, many have been evicted from the farms their families have been living on for centuries and forced into squatter camps.

In May of 1999 the Environmental Evaluation Unit (EEU) of the University of Cape Town (UCT) conducted research concerning the South African Wine Industry. This report sates that: Hand harvesting has the positive result of providing employment. The employment created through using hand harvesting is significant in the local economy. (Burger, L. et al. (1999) ‘Implementing an Environmental Management System at Spier Wine Farm and Winery: Initial Feasibility Study and Environmental Review’ Environmental Evaluation Unit Report No. 1/99/182. Page 38)

During the last few centuries the extensively used ‘dop system’ meant that many of these workers were paid with wine. Although this practice is now illegal the reality is that many Wine Estates still provide workers with cheap flagons of wine on premise. This has led to the Grape-pickers of the Western Cape having the highest rate of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in the world. Combined with this disease are the problems of insufficient sate provided education opportunities, a high rate of unemployment, homelessness and associated social disruption.

The hard labour of these people has built the South African Wine Industry into the successful industry that it is today. Yet despite their contribution towards one of South Africa’s most commercially productive industries these oppressed people have only been further oppressed during the New South Africa. The South African Wine Industry is responsible for the ‘dop system’ and yet has failed to address the problems created by this system. There is an urgent need for a long-term rehabilitation program that includes providing clinics, schools, housing and alcohol rehabilitation programs amongst the Grape-pickers of the Western Cape.