Agri bargaining council 'impractical'

Sektorale kode AgriSEB plafon kan verander

Die sektorale kode vir swart bemagtiging in die landbou (AgriSEB) is afgehandel en van krag, maar die plafon vir vrygestelde en kwalifiserende ondernemings kan moontlik nog verander.

Die AgriSEB-raamwerk is in 2004 van stapel gestuur. Die handves is ná ’n proses van konsultasie in Maart 2008 bekend gestel. ’n Raad is toe aangestel om onder meer die sektorale kodes vir AgriSEB op te stel en die toepassing van die handves te monitor. Een van die groot kwessies destyds was of ’n plafon ingestel moet word om sommige boere van die kode uit te sluit.

25.01.2013 / Agbiz in the news

AgriBEE sector code official

The AgriBEE Sector Code became effective last month but the sector was still unclear on what it meant for farmers and agribusinesses. To download this article, click here.

Call for an imporved agri-investment climate

South Africa’s Agricultural Business Chamber (AgBiz) urged government to implement the recommendations of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation’s 2012 ‘State of Food and Agriculture’ report.

The report called for new investment strategies clearly articulating the investment needed by governments, farmers, co-operatives and agribusinesses in each country’s agricultural sector. AgBiz’s CEO, Dr John Purchase, said that SA had many positives, including macro-economic stability, generally good governance in the public and private sectors, and effective market institutions and arrangements, which benefited investment growth in the country’s agricultural sector.

18.01.2013 / Agbiz in the news

Farm pay hike may spark job losses

THE National Development Plan, endorsed by the ANC last month, projects that agriculture has the potential to create a million jobs by 2030 but with the ongoing strikes the sector is expected to lose more than 200,000 jobs within three years.

The strike by Western Cape farm workers resumed this week with demands for a daily wage of R150 compared to the current government-determined minimum of R69.

13.01.2013 / Agbiz in the news

Highs and lows on the economic front

Increase input and political influence will put a damper on the relief provided by high commodity price in 2013. Briennne van der Walt, managing executive of Absa AgriBusiness, said that 2013 will be a good year for a agriculture, as global commodity prices would hold due to sustained  demand. To download this article, click here.

SA investor image up in flames as Cape burns

THE Western Cape farm strike took a dramatic turn on Thursday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it had "exhausted its social and political capital" in trying to find a solution to the upheaval, and that the protests were now effectively "out of its hands".

Less than 10% of farm workers in the province, thousands of whom have embarked on violent action in support of their demand that their wages be doubled to R150 a day, belong to unions.

As with the strikes that swept the mining sector last year, organised labour has found itself wrong-footed in its attempts to negotiate on behalf of the workers and end the violence.

11.01.2013 / Agbiz in the news