"This bodes well for the future of this industry and the SA Wine Council, truly a unique and visionary initiative in the South African agricultural landscape!"
Some of past year’s achievements:
1. The Wine-BEE Transformation Charter and Scorecard
After more than three years of intensive consultations and deliberations between representatives of all major industry stakeholders – black and white; workers and owners; farmers, wine makers and traders - the wine industry is now ready to submit its Charter to the Government for consideration. The SA Wine Council decided to initially apply for a Section 12 Charter which provides a clear statement of intent and commits all the role-players to transformation of the industry. In practice, this means that measured enterprises will use the generic Scorecard in the Codes of Good Practice for measuring their BEE status. This arrangement will remain in place pending a decision to apply for a Section 9 Code where after the industry scorecard will obtain legal status.
This can be seen as a "Statement of Policy" and a "Programme of Action" based on a joint vision of "A united South African Wine Industry, which is sustainable, prosperous, accessible, just and competitive for the benefit of all."
The Wine Charter is the result of a determined effort by the wine industry to set the tone for change and renewal in order to secure a future in the South African winelands. The scope of the Wine Charter and its scorecard allows all enterprises - big, small and micro - to contribute substantially to the following areas:
Ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, business development initiatives, and rural development and poverty alleviation.
Particular scoring incentives in the Wine Scorecard are directed towards skills, economic and social development initiatives, while land reform and the upliftment of farm worker environments are positioned as priority areas of action. But more than a scorecard, the charter will provide a roadmap for the foundation of the wine industry.
2. Social Development in the Wine Industry
A workshop on social issues in the wine industry will be conducted on 20 August 2007 by the SA Wine Council in cooperation with SAWIT and is to include a wide range of high ranking specialist speakers from industry, government and civil society. Topics to be discussed include: the social development agenda for the wine industry; sectoral determination and employment conditions; land reform and business development support; and issues such as farm evictions.
This workshop with the title "Making wine work for all" aims to:
• raise consciousness of social issues in the wine industry;
• reach common understanding of such issues; and to
• suggest remedies and the way forward.
The SA Wine Council will consider the Workshop’s recommendations in order to develop policy and action guidelines and implement these where practically possible.
3. GMOs in the Wine Industry
After a Special Council session on GMOs on 10 May 2007, the SA Wine Council confirmed its policy only to support GMO research within international approved protocols and monitoring procedures. Until the long-term impacts of GMO developments have been clarified, no commercialisation will however be approved by the SA Wine Council and the resources and the Stellenbosch University will work in cooperation with other voices.
4. 2010 FIFA World Cup
The SA Wine Council approached the FIFA Local Organising Committee (LOC), SA Tourism and the Western Cape Organising Committee to jointly develop a strategic plan to ensure full support by the wine industry for this event. The wine industry intends to position as one of the major tourism and hospitality attractions before and during this tournament.
5. Wine Levies
The SA Wine Council has approved an application to the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs to increase in the statutory levies to support export promotion, research and development and information services in the wine industry. It was also agreed that 20% plus of these monies, paid by the industry, will be directed to promote transformation activities within each of these services. This amounts to ±R12 million per annum.
6. Succession planning in the office of the CEO of the SA Wine Council
Planning is underway to support the industry transformation process through succession planning and re-organisation in the Office of the CEO.
7. Interaction with Ministers
Efforts are underway to meet the Ministers of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Trade and Industry and Science and Technology to discuss matters relevant to the wine industry. These include the Wine Charter international trade issues, research and development funding, transformation initiatives and progress with the Wine Industry Strategy Plan (WIP).
8. Class Action by BAWSI
The Council has not been officially approached by BAWSI on their intended process of class action against the government and the wine industry concerning alcohol abuse. The Council decided to approach BAWSI to discuss these matters.