Greg StanleyMy friend Matt is a beekeeper, he was retrenched in 1998 when the Company he worked for outsourced their waste management. He searched for another job for nearly two years. He sold second hand crockery at boot sales and looked after a stall in a flea market.
In 2001 he took what was left of his retrenchment money, took a loan and brought a run-down four-hectare smallholding in the KZN midlands. He refurbished the house, built a chicken run and planted vegetables. He also built beehives and started producing honey. Today he has more than 400 beehives, which he places in the huge timber plantations that surround his farm.
He has also encouraged the local community to participate and they are now expanding honey production in the area and Matt buys their honey.
The plantation owners get the benefit of pollination that the bees provide and Matt gets the honey, which he extracts and seals, into 200 litre barrels which he sells to various processors throughout the country.
Honey is very profitable and Matt makes a good living, he supports a wife and a child and he employs three women who are all single mothers and who live on his farm. He drives a ten year old truck and his wife has a second hand small car. He is not rich but his family does not depend on anyone and he provides a home to his employees and limited employment in what is a poor rural environment.
In our new democracy he is an example of small business entrepreneurship. He is in keeping with the bee-keeping initiative announced in 2004 by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, who is promoting beekeeping as a NEPAD project and a protection mechanism for the indigenous african honey bee.
Honey is a valuable product, Matt’s cost to produce honey is R25 a kilogram. He was selling it at R35 a kilogram. That was until early May when a thousand tons of honey from China was landed in Durban and sold to processors at R23 a kilogram. Matt can no longer make a profit, but he is a survivor and he will make ends meet at the cost of expanded production, product development and more employment.
Craftsman
It is not only the large employers and their workers who are hit by cheap subsidised imports. My friend Chris is a craftsman and supervisor in a well
known company in Pinetown that produces wood products – anything from toilet seats to toothpicks and employs 120 people.
The company has decided to stop local manufacture and get their products made in China and sold under the same brand name here. Only their distribution side will stay open. At least 100 of those workers will lose their jobs including Chris.
My friend Colin died last week when he committed suicide. His only asset was a trouser factory that made high quality golf trousers, he employed 30 people. For some months now he had not received any contracts.
Last week he went bankrupt, all his workers, most of them skilled textile workers have lost their jobs. Colin blew his brains out.
The textile industry is one of the hardest hit by cheap imports, thousands of workers have been laid off, industries have closed, mining is in crisis and, like Matt and Chris and Colin, workers and entrepreneurs will cease to make a living wage.
Numsa grows bigger
Congratulations to all regions that have recruited more members into Numsa’s ranks. Now the real challenge starts – service those members. New members, make sure your shop stewards brief you on how Numsa works and what your responsibilities are as a member.
Remember, Numsa’s strength does not come from the offices and the officials, it comes from YOU the members working together with other members.
Region
New members – June 2005
Western Transvaal Ekurhuleni Wits Central West Mpumalanga KZN Eastern CapeNorthern CapeHlangananiWestern Cape
2921703Not submitted414247Not submitted218245447
Recipes to save workers
It is now time for government to do what needs to be done to save our workers, increase employment, protect small business and stop large ones
from closing their mines and factories. The task is not simple but there are recipes.
We need to create internal demand, this means creating employment and improving wages beyond CPIX. The exchange rate needs to be reduced, it can be done by fixing a lower rate or by reducing interest rates. A long hard look at the trade balance is necessary.
We need to stop or restrict subsidized products that are produced by children or non unionized workers and if necessary introduce tariffs on those imports that cause job losses.
Not that there is anything wrong with goods or trade from China, I have recently purchased a made in China fishing rod and an excellent pair of running shoes, both are excellent quality and the fishing rod at least was a reasonable price.
I will not buy a wooden product that could be made in Pinetown. Cheap subsidized imports are destroying thousands of jobs and will continue to do so until such time as our Government talks to China and others and makes agreements to offset imports with exports and insists on fair trade.
My friend Matt will survive, Chris will make wooden items in his back yard and sell them on a flea market. My friend Colin is dead, and all his workers are unemployed.