Mr Speaker, what the ANC and Cosatu are doing in De Doorns is both dangerous and short-sighted. I am not a spokesperson for the farmers, but I believe to create an impression that all farmers are bad employers and should be bankrupt is dangerous. We all acknowledge that, historically, farm workers have been exploited and treated badly, but the government made sure that they are covered by the labour legislation in this country.
The fact that Cosatu leadership has opportunistically jumped onto the bandwagon and projected farmers and farm workers as enemies is short- sighted, because we all know that after the strike these farmers and farm workers will have to continue working together. The fact that a leader of the ANC, who is also a member of the national executive of government, also went there and instigated the workers, just to become the rabble-rouser of the day, is reckless. It is reckless because the message he is sending is that the government is against the farmers and that the farmers must be treated like enemies and their property destroyed. However, what he failed to tell the workers is that their demands could easily be met by the government increasing the minimum wage of farm workers, because it is the Minister of Labour who has the powers to set the minimum wage. If indeed hon Fransman really believed those workers must earn the salary demanded by them, he should have called on his own government to increase the minimum wage to meet the workers' demands.
The danger of having a long strike is that when workers are on strike employers are planning how to reduce the number of workers and introduce mechanisation as far as production is concerned. When things settle down after the strike, they start retrenching workers in the name of rationalisation. As Cope, we believe that political parties must stop interfering with industrial relations issues, because they just muddy the waters and will not be there to repair the relations between workers and employers after the strike. We are concerned about the violence which has accompanied this strike, because the national road is closed, and the ANC and Cosatu are responsible for that. [Time expired.] [Applause.]