Complying With SA's Demanding Labour Laws

Western Cape pome fruit producer Steven Versfeld earlier this year became the first farmer to achieve platinum status with no non-compliances from the Sustainability Initiative of South Africa for his workforce management. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about this accomplishment.

- Glenneis Kriel

The Sustainability Initiative of South Africa (SIZA) audits farmers for compliance with labor legislation and care for the environment. It incorporates both local legislation and international requirements in its standard but goes far beyond these to ensure that practices are continually improved and become part of the culture and day-to-day practices on a farm.

So explains Steven Versfeld, an apple and pear producer and the owner of Achtertuin farm near Ceres in the Warm Bokkeveld.

“When preparing for a SIZA audit, I ensure that I have all the required information on hand, read through previous audit findings, and address all the recommendations,” he says.

When the audit began at the start of this year, Versfeld was aiming for platinum status, as achieving this reduces the frequency of audits from once every year or two (depending on whether a farmer earns bronze, silver or gold status) to once every three years, which represents considerable cost and time savings. He succeeded, however, in going beyond anyone’s expectations, gaining platinum status without any non-compliances attached. This, a first for SIZA, was far from Versfeld’s mind when he prepared for the audit.

“Preparation material is available, but it’s not an average audit where farmers can comply by merely ticking off a minimum set of requirements,” he says.

To make things even trickier, SIZA audits include random interviews with employees across all levels of employment.

“Your paperwork and ethical practices might be great, but everything can fall apart with the interviews, as you have absolutely no control over what employees will say,” Versfeld explains.