Cape Times reports that the transportation of farmworkers has yet again come under the spotlight after a 24-year-old was crushed to death under a trailer in Citrusdal.
According to reports, the farmworker was on the trailer attached to a tractor travelling on a tarred road, when the driver swerved to avoid a pothole on 8 August. The worker then fell off and his head got caught under the trailer wheel, killing him instantly. Executive director of the Rural and Farm Workers Development Organisation, Billy Claasen, said the accident “could have been prevented if the necessary safety measures” had been taken. Allegedly, the driver of the tractor did not have the necessary documentation to operate the tractor on a public road. There were approximately 54 workers on the trailer. The Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry president, Nosey Pieterse, called for measures to be implemented to ensure the safety of farmworkers. “This is very horrible and we have raised the issue time and time again, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Farmworkers’ lives are as important and we need competent structures to oversee the transporting of farmworkers, because these are people’s lives. It’s not something new,” he stated.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Athandile Siyo at Cape Times
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