Agriculture
Question by:
Hon Andricus van der Westhuizen
Answered by:
Hon Ivan Meyer
Question Number:
3
Question Body:
With regard to the travel of essential services seasonal workers with homes outside the Western Cape:
- Approximately how many of these seasonal workers indicated a preference to return to their homes outside the Western Cape after the end of the deciduous fruit season and
- how many of them were able to make use of the window period during the first week of May 2020 that allowed them to cross provincial boundaries?
Answer Body:
- The Depatment did not undertake a survey of workers interested in returning home as these travel arrangements were between the farmers and their employees rendering an essential service. However, the Department assisted the industry with the development of transport protocol to ensure compliance with health regulations when workers move between provinces.
- As indicated in the response to Parliamentary question 13 -2020, It is impossible to determine the accurate number of workers that were actually transported back to their respective provinces, as the Department does not have a database of every worker that had planned to return to the Eastern Cape. However, an initial assessment of 13 big employers with approximately 8000 seasonal workers between them, is that all these workers were transported to their homes in other provinces.
Date:
Friday, May 8, 2020
