science

Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike

Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike rather than just read about it. In short: The Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike was a wave of strikes and protests by agricultural workers in the Western Cape from 27 August 2012 to 22 January 2013. The events led to the deaths of 3 workers, R160 million in damages as well as a 52% increase in the official minimum wage.

Key takeaways

Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike was a wave of strikes and protests by agricultural workers in the Western Cape from 27 August 2012 to 22 January 2013. The events led to the deaths of 3 workers, R160 million in damages as well as a 52% increase in the official minimum wage. The protests mostly took place the towns of De Doorns and Worcester with smaller protests in Ceres, Robertson, Grabouw, Wolseley and Villiersdorp. The main cause of the strikes was low worker pay of R69 (roughly US$8.54 in 2012) per day and high unemployment.

Initial protests in 2012 The protests began on a farm near De Doorns on 27 August 2012 when a group of largely female workers walked off the job. It then spread to other areas. It has been described as 'organic' and organised by workers without mediation by political parties, trade unions or NGOs. The strike was finally called off on 4 December 2012. According to the Mail & Guardian "the fact that the protests spread so fast after decades of quiescence shocked the country." It has been suggested that the strike was, in part, inspired by the Marikana miners' strike which took place earlier in the year. Three protesters were killed during the strike amidst widespread claims of police brutality and intimidation of workers to join the strikes.

Forms of protest The strike mostly included road blockades, stoning of police, and burning vineyards but also included the intimidation of non-striking workers and damage to property (both agricultural as well as urban). The police reported that shops were also looted.

Violence A 28-year-old man, Michael Daniels, was shot dead by the police on 14 November 2012. A 40-year-old man, Bongile Ndleni, was shot dead, allegedly by a private security firm, on 17 November 2012. Amongst other reports of police violence it has been reported that a ten-year-old girl was shot in the face with a rubber bullet by the police. A police officer was injured and hospitalised by protesters when they stoned a police station. On Elim farm, near De Doorns, a pensioner, Jan Jonkers, was attacked by a protester with a machete fracturing his skull after he was mistaken for a non-striking worker. The provincial premier Helen Zille had stones thrown at her and her delegation when they tried to address a crowd of 2,000 protesters in De Doorns forcing her, although unharmed, to leave the area.

Role of COSATU On 14 November COSATU announced that the strike was suspended but workers continued with their strike. The next day, most farmworkers remained on strike. This led to a split between the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), which is affiliated with COSATU, and the leadership of COSATU in the Western Cape with the former opting to support the farmworkers in defying COSATU's agreement with government. According to the Daily Maverick, Cosatu did not have a democratic mandate to call off the strike on 4 December 2010.

Resumption of the Strike in 2013 The strike was resumed in January 2013. It was, again, accompanied by considerable violence by and spreading to the towns of Villiersdrop and Wolseley. The Daily Maverick reported that Nosey Pieterse, the president of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirit Industry and general secretary of Bawusa, the Bawsi Agricultural Workers Union of South Africa, played an important role in the strike in January 2013. However others have argued that the strike was largely self organised and that leaders were largely self-proclaimed. Letsekang Tokhwane, 25, was shot dead by the police on 14 January 2013. The strike was finally called off on 22 January 2013. A number of workers were fired as a result of their participation in the strike.

Impact The strikes had an imitate impact on the daily minimum wage for agricultural workers being raised from R69 (roughly US$8.54 in 2012) per day to R105 (US$13 in 2012) per day. The event was also used as a regional campaign issue in the run up to the South African general election of 2014. Attempts to resume the strike one year later in November 2013 where unsuccessful due to a reported lack of interest by workers and well as disagreement over the necessity of striking again. The Western Cape's premier and member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Helen Zille, stated that she believed there was a political motive for the strike with the African National Congress stoking unrest in the province to present the DA run province as "exploitative, racist and ungovernable".

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike

In research: Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 in South Africa, 2012 labor disputes and strikes, 2012 protests, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike in simple terms?

Why does Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Western Cape 2012 Farm Workers' strike.