Cape wine workers paid less than R60 a day

This is ridiculous. I cant't believe that there are still people that are overlooking the ill treatment of our people. These businesses are making way more money and I am sure that R 70 an hour for a worker is a drop in their pockets. I stand against it and they should be prosecuted.

I am surprised to see these workers earn so little. I have been living in the UK for a year now as a student and I cannot afford to purchase South African wines and goods in retail supermarkets here. They are so expensive, more than £5 for a lousy bottle of wine (which is about R72.00 on todays' exchange rate). Although UK locals buy them, because South African wines are generally tasty, they bear some funny names from the wines we are used to at home. Fruits are even worse. 200g of grapes from South Africa at Sainsbury's cost about £3.99. I have not eaten grapes, peaches, apricots, plums for a while, and I wonder how much profits these supermarkets make out of this. I am really interested in doing this price comparison for South African goods retailed in the UK (especially fruits, vegetables etc) just to see who really benefits out of this. Is it the farmers in South Africa (who then rob their employees by giving them an unbearable pay) or the UK retailers (who continue to enjoy large profits out of unequal exchange from the developing world.) I have always asked myself these questions. Even by UK standards, for the consumers here, these goods are expensive. I wonder how much the retailers buy these goods for (say grapes per box), how much import duties or customs, packaging and other costs they pay for, and what is their ultimate profit margin compared to that one made by producers (the farmers in RSA) and the pay for the workers. Who ultimately pockets the surplus value in this chain. Is there any literature that I can consult on this?

episodes of "chef!" notwithstanding, you generally cannot buy english wine. too many people, not enough space for proper vineyards. by default, it must then be imported.

the cost of wines is directly proportional to the distance it has to travel to get to your local store. so R20 wine in mdantsane, east london is often R80 in dagenham, east london.

south africans, even educated ones, are grossly underpaid. now, while i think it's wrong that R57 a day is a wage -- which is above minimum wage, by the way. but seeing that, in a 37.5 hour work week, R100,000 is only R51 per hour, the problem with "low pay" is a structural thing. given how literate you have to be in order to get a job that pays R51 per hour, it's a safe bet to say that those workers getting R57 per day aren't particularly literate, and are paid accordingly.

capitalism at work. and to be honest, that's marxism at work, too.

Tesco lies. They make their best profits out of Chinese sweatshop labour too. These wouldn't be anything to do with the DLA ( especially Hanekom's ) great emancipation of the workers wine farms ? I certainly hope not. Next thing it'll be back to the dop system.

Mdu Manyoni- I don't agree. The farmer, local or foreign still gets the least for their produce. Most of the profits are made by intermediate dealers, international cartels and transporters. Remember that in the EU there are no import taxes between countries and transport is well regulated. In season, the UK and the EU are flooded with cheaper european produce. The exhorbitant prices you quote are on imported out of season goods from non-EU countries. If you want grapes in winter, you pay the price. In August the price drops to 10% of what you mention. Having said that, I agree with the wage issue. These people must earn more and someone should take this up seriously with farmers.