'Slave farmer' pays R80 000

2003-07-09 12:22

Sizwe samaYende

Ermelo - An Mpumalanga farmer has forked out close to R80 000 as 'compensation' to more than 60 labourers, some of whom earned as little as 14 cents in three months.

Gideon Buhrmann of De Emigratie farm near Ermelo shocked labour inspectors on Thursday last week when they raided his farm and found that illegal deductions were made from the earnings of 69 workers.

The workers came mainly from Taung in North West, and had virtually nothing left to take home.

Inspectors also found 12 workers and their children were using one room and sharing their yard with pigs.

Ermelo labour inspector Zweli Kubheka and Buhrmann's representative from the Transvaal Agricultural Union, Piet Kemp, confirmed on Tuesday the workers were paid out between R1 300 and R1 800.

"The workers were being underpaid from April 2002, so the farmer has paid them back," said Kubheka.

The workers have returned home on the advice of labour inspectors.

"This is not the end of the matter," said Kubheka.

"The workers were registered for the Unemployment Insurance Fund, but there's no proof the employer paid that money."

Burhmann has not replied to messages that had been left at his farm since Friday last week.

The Tau, however, said in a statement the allegations against Burhmann were untrue and didn't reflect the spirit in which the negotiations between labour inspectors and the farmer were conducted.

"The allegation that workers were remunerated with a few cents does not reflect the true state of affairs," said Tau's regional chairman Piet Kemp.

"[Burhmann] provided employment opportunities for a number of families and contributed to job creation in South Africa."

He added that some "politically-minded" individuals in Ermelo were objecting because Burhmann had employed Tswana-speaking people in the predominantly Zulu-speaking area.

This is not Buhrmann's first tussle with the government.

He took legal action that forced Land Minister Thoko Didiza to amend legislation to allow labourers to be buried on farms.

Burhmann, with Tau's support, refused to allow a 31-year-old worker to be buried on his farm about four years ago.

The case went as far as the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and he won because the Extension of Security of Tenure Act was silent on the burial rights of farm labourers.

Didiza decided to amend the act in 2001 to give labourers rights to be buried on farms if they worked and stayed there.

An Amersfoort farmer, also in Mpumalanga, has recently failed in his attempt to challenge the amendment.

- African Eye