Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the House -
1) notes that while the Eastern Cape Development Corporation prides itself on the Magwa Tea Estate, citing it as one of its good stories to tell, over 2 000 black farm workers have not been paid since May last year;
2) also notes that while Magwa, the producer of more than 70% of South African tea, which used to be the biggest contributor to the former Transkei GDP, exploits the workers, government reports paint a different picture;
3) further notes that the tea farm in Lusikisiki in Pondoland was opened in the 1960s by the native government and reopened by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, which provided technical and financial support to the tea estate, followed by an investment of over R50 million from government in the 2006-07 financial year;
4) also notes the shameful reality that over 2 000 employees of the tea farm have not received their salaries since May 2014, despite the injection of over R50 million, which evidently did not benefit workers;
5) further notes that the Eastern Cape government has failed to intervene since last year and, in the year of the Freedom Charter according to President Zuma, workers on the farm have approached the EFF, reporting no change in their working conditions;
6) condemns the Eastern Cape provincial government and the national government for turning a blind eye to such a crucial issue, and being misleading in their reports that the tea farm is a success;
7) calls on the government to expropriate the farm without compensation, and for control and ownership to be transferred to the farm workers; 8) also calls on government to provide technical and financial support directly to the workers;
9) further calls upon Parliament to urgently pass a law to protect local and infant industries against foreign competition, in this case to ensure direct benefit to the people of Lusikisiki; and
10) calls upon government to introduce a minimum wage of R5 000 per month.
I now put the motion. Are there any objections?
HON MEMBERS: Yes!
As there are objections, the motion is not agreed to.
