Mr Speaker, I am still on the same issue. When the DA has no answers for protests, it claims they are politically motivated. It is the same case with the ongoing saga in the Hex River Valley, where farm labourers around De Doorns have for many months bemoaned the exploitation they experience there. People are paid a pittance by unscrupulous labour brokers and some farmers, while they happily export top-earning grapes for the tables of the rich around the world. The farm workers also claim to be abused, assaulted and maltreated. These claims were evident in the reaction scenes on television where people were shot at and assaulted in full view of cameras.
There is a stark contrast between thousands of poor black and coloured farm workers and the farm owners in this lucrative and profitable industry. The fact that the DA government in the Western Cape has, so far, only met with farmers and advanced the interests of these entrepreneurs speaks volumes. Even when the three MECs rushed to De Doorns last week, the first thing they did was to meet with the farmers and not the aggrieved workers. After all, it was the workers who had been on various strikes for weeks now, and not their employers. No wonder the workers rejected the MECs and their Premier when they eventually found time to go to the workers. Is it any wonder that farm workers across the Western Cape feel alienated, like refugees, by the DA government? The DA has absolutely no regrets. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]