ANC-linked Food & Allied workers Union “threatens with invasions of vineyards”
Jul 20 2004 – The ANC-allied “Food and Allied Workers Union” are threatening wine estate owners with land invasions should a black economic empowerment consortium buy stakes in the wine industry.

No vineyard or wine estate in South Africa has ever been attacked by armed militants the way other farms have been since 1991.
This new threat simply forms part of the ANC’s tactics of pressuring the owners of vineyards and cooperatives’ shareholders into handing over most of their valuable assets.
– Cape Town – The union this week repeated its so-called “opposition” to plans of a group of 14 ANC-leaders, together with the SA Wine Industry Trust (Sawit), to “acquire” a multi-million rand majority stake up for grabs in the KWV restructuring deal.

In reality KWV’s farmer-members are simply being coerced into handing over the greatest proportion of their shares for free to the “black empowerment group” – with promises that they would still be allowed to run their farms as before…

No vineyard has ever been attacked:
What makes this threat by the trade union particularly interesting is that in spite of the many tens of thousands of armed attacks against all kinds of commercial farms in South Africa, during which some 1,662 farmers have already died since 1991, no wine farm has ever been attacked.
Also, none of the Cape’s highly valuable and historic vinyards has thus far even been targetted for squatter-occupation campaigns such as is seen in so many other regions.
KWV is the highly successful South African cooperative-association which sells some of the country’s best brands of spirits and liqueurs, such as the world-famous and much sought-after KWV brandy.
Their shareholders also are the wine estate owners who raise the grapes under closely-guarded quota systems linked to the wine estates, which are undoubtedly the world’s best-nurtured vineyards.
The Cape has the world’s best winemakers — and their wines often receive the world’s top awards from ancient grape vines which had been brought to South Africa by the Huguenots fleeing from religious persecution in France two centuries earlier.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20040721014845856C818521
This week, the ANC-allied trade union put on a big pretence, fuming that “not the ANC elitists should be getting the lion’s shares of the looted properties of these vineyards — but the workers”.

“This is an attempt to steal the land and the wealth from workers.”
The union claimed that the elitist plan would ‘rob workers of the opportunity to benefit as the primary stakeholders in the industry.”
Fawu, which is affiliated to the labour federation Cosatu said it was “concerned not only about the KWV deal, but also about the future direction of black economic empowerment, where workers and communities should be key beneficiaries ahead of a new black elite.
Current negotiations on the “restructuring” of KWV, are deadlocked” it is being claimed — with ANC elite wanting KWV to hand over more free shares than the farmer-shareholders are willing to part with.

However the ANC ‘s so-called “Employment Empowerment Trust” will undoubtedly win the day — as they can always use their trade union clout to start threatening and invading the holdings of these farmer-shareholders if they refuse to cooperate.

Trade union threatens with lawsuit against KWV management:
Besides filing a section 77 notice of strike action with Nedlac, Fawu said on Tuesday it had also approached the Master of the Cape High Court to investigate any allegations of “improper conduct on the side of KWV management. “
“If management have indeed abused their position as trustees of this trust (the Employees Empowerment Trust), where they sit in the majority, Fawu will pursue all possible routes to secure the workers interest,” it said.
Fawu said it was also considering referring the Master of the Court to actions of the Sawit Trustees, who the union accuses of having acted beyond designated areas of expenditure for the past 12 months.
“We believe that the KWV and their ally the South African Wine Industry Trust are deliberately squandering the opportunity to create a stable and prosperous industry that properly recognises the 80 years of hard work (of workers),” said the union.
“A deal that properly recognises the role played by workers in creating the luxury of the wine industry will take us on the road to avoiding a Zimbabwe-style situation in the wine industry,” it said.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1560415,00.html