(Adnkronos) – In South Africa, factories, farms, and homes are struggling to find labor after thousands of foreign workers left within weeks, fleeing sometimes deadly anti-migrant demonstrations that swept the country, accompanied by a tightening of controls on undocumented immigrants.
A sign of the citrus season in South Africa, tree branches bend under the weight of juice-soaked fruits in the agricultural town of Robertson, where Aaron Majatamhe works. “I see many farm owners complaining right now… We have to pick these mandarins, but there’s no one,” the farm worker from this town 150 km from Cape Town told AFP.
This 33-year-old man sees the same shortage looming over the vineyards. “It’s time to prune the vines, and there’s no one alive to do it.” Similar scenes are repeating across the country. Since the end of May, more than 160,000 foreigners have left South Africa. Some xenophobic groups had set June 30 as the deadline for undocumented immigrants to leave.
As a primary country of return, Zimbabwe reported that many of its citizens worked in agriculture, construction, and the domestic sector in South Africa. The effect was felt almost immediately in the sugar-growing region of KwaZulu-Natal province, in the southeast.
One farmer explains that he lost up to 80% of his cane cutters, practically overnight. “Production and supply have deteriorated to such an extent that it will be difficult for sugar mills to remain open,” said the farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of further harming his business.
Another farmer, near Mid Illovo, a hilly region south of Durban, explains that most of the cane cutters in the area come from Lesotho, a small landlocked kingdom within South Africa. “People here don’t like this work, because it’s hard and very physical,” he says.
This argument is disputed by anti-migrant groups and trade unions, who blame undocumented immigrants and employers for the nearly 33% unemployment plaguing South Africa. For them, many employers favor migrants because they are cheaper, more flexible, and less likely to demand employment contracts or legal protections.
“They take advantage of foreign nationals,” denounces Patrick Williams, a local leader of one of the main agricultural workers’ unions, Csaawu. Foreigners commonly work seven days a week, skip lunch breaks, and are often paid below the national minimum wage, he stated.
Four foreigners have died due to xenophobic violence, according to South African authorities. A citrus farm worker, Aaron Majatamhe, a Zimbabwean citizen, has decided to stay, at least for now. “We are afraid to stay,” he confides. “But the problem is we don’t have the money to go home.”
