WIETA News
WIETA’s New Board
Chairperson – Mzukizi Mooi
Mzukisi Mooi is an Adult Education, Training and Development
Practitioner and is the Operations Manager for the Centre for Rural
Legal Studies.
Vice Chair – Donald Mouton
Donald Mouton represents Wine producers / growers on the Board
and is the farm manager for Fairview.
Treasurer – Fatima Shabodien
Fatima serves as the executive director of the Women on Farms
Project and is the representative for the civil society constituency
within WIETA.
Su Birch
Su Birch is CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA). Su is a
co-founder of SHARE, a not for profit project aimed at promoting
adult literacy. In 2008 Su launched a project to fund the raining of
2010 wine stewards before the 2010 World Cup. The project is funded
through the sale of Fundi wine.
Riaan Kruger
Riaan is the Chief Executive Officer of the South African Liquor
Brandowners Association (SALBA). He is also a member of the Wine and
Spirit Board and serves as Chairman of SA Wine Industry Information
& Systems (SAWIS) and Wines of South Africa (WOSA).
Marinda Solomon
Marinda is a producer representative and currently works with
Origin Wines.
Howard Mbana
Howard is the FAWU Union representative on the Board and is the
Project co-ordinator for the FAWU Farm Workers Project.
Deon Adams
Deon Adams was elected Union representative within WIETA and is
currently with FOCSWU.
Joey Cloete
Joey was mandated by the GWU at the last AGM and is currently
employed by BAWUSA.
WIETA’s Objectives
2008/2009
WIETA is committed to achieving the following objectives :
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Promote, gaining recognition for, and encourage the adoption
of and compliance with an internationally accepted WIETA
Code of Conduct that’s is lived in the agricultural sector |
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Drive a Communications Strategy |
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Develop Capacity Building Tools and Training Programmes
aimed at supporting members in achieving ethical best
practice through sustained improvements in worker conditions
and well being |
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Structure, staff and skill internal resources in order to
deliver value to all stakeholders |
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Source and Secure Sustainable funding for the organisation |
Newly Accredited Members 2009
Congratulations to the following members on achieving
accreditation in compliance with the WIETA Code :
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Eikenhof Farm Melsetter
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Hoogland
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Bonnievale Cellars
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Starking Fruit Packers – Cortina Farms
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JH Nieuwoudt Boerdery BK
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DGB (Pty) Ltd - Bochendal
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KWV Upington
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Melsetter Kruisrivier
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Ken Forrester
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First Cape Vineyards
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Robertson Winery
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Robertson Cellar
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Windmeul
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Fynsa
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Flower Valley Trust
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Niewedam
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Kosie Lourens
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Tresso Trading
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Mara Farm
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Infanta Flowers
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Intaba
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Jakkalsrivier
Trading as WIETA
In 2008 WIETA members adopted a change in
name to the Agricultural Ethical Trade Initiative of South Africa to
allow for operating within the broader agricultural sector.
To facilitate the continued recognition of
WIETA as a recognised ethical trade brand, particularly with our
global partners and amongst our wine and spirits stakeholders,
producers and members, the Board recently took a decision to
continue trading as WIETA.
SEDEX Updates and
SA Visit December 2009
Wieta recently attended the October SEDEX
Auditor Committee meeting in the UK. At the meeting, auditors
discussed whether SEDEX could develop functionality on the system to
allow members to share audit information with their clients. SEDEX
will be looking into a reminder pop up to prompt suppliers to set
duplicate access rights where they have more than one customer on
SEDEX.
To ensure that you are kept up-to-date going
forward, on your request, Sedex has created a section in your member
and auditor accounts called ‘System updates and training
information’. This is accessible from the help section. All key
issues will be logged there and updated as their status changes.
Dates for training and system FAQs are also accessible there.
If you would like more information about
training, including a synopsis of what will be covered in the
training sessions, please contact
training@sedex.org.uk.
The following developments were raised as
being required in the short-term. These will be included in the
‘known system issues’ document posted in member accounts.
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Ability for companies to delete their own sites |
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Ability to move sites between subsidiaries |
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Ability for auditors to re-assign audit requests to
different auditors within their companies |
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Ability to access all information about a supplier from one
list or report |
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Need the system to allow for more than 2,000 records visible
on screen |
These suggestions will be included into
the product roadmap which is currently being developed, and will be
fed back to members for consultation before it is finalised.
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Members to assign their own critical, major, minor in their
own bespoke reports Offline data capture for SMETA report
and audit upload Automatic linking of non compliances with
suggested corrective actions |
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Ability to see if a linked supplier has an audit on the
system but has not shared it |
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Could Sedex help members know when they have added an audit
but not shared with anyone |
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Autotext for issue titles – add first three letters + search
instead of or as well as the drop down list |
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Blind data:
– Members would like access to blind data as part of their
membership
– Question of whether historic blind data be retrospectively
split into
Critical, Major, Minor |
Patsy Richardson will be in South Africa
from the 8th December 2009 and WIETA has invited to chat to our
members about the new SAQs and any other valuable input she may have
on recent SEDEX systems development.
Should you be interested in joining this
SEDEX session please contact the WIETA office for time and venue
details.
WIETA’s
Ethical Trade Training Programme
WIETA organises regular awareness and
training workshops on ethical trade, the WIETA Code and how it can
assist you to improve and sustain good labour conditions and worker
well being at your site.
Three Training Programmes are being offered.
One for producers and growers and their
senior staff who are responsible for the implementation of codes of
practice, quality management and assessment management. Union
officials and NGO representatives who promote ethical trade can also
participate in this.
The Ethical Trade Training Programme
consists of three interactive half day workshops and is aimed at
building a solid understanding of ethical trade in the South African
agricultural sector.
The second programme is designed for workers
in the agricultural sector. The Worker Rights Training Programme
consists of one full day or two half day sessions and is designed to
give workers an overall understanding of worker rights and the
legislation that guarantees those rights and explores what workers
can do to achieve those rights. The session also focuses on
workplace codes such as the ETI and WIETA code and these codes can
be effectively used to secure worker rights.
The third programme is a supply chain
awareness programme targeting those interested in Labour and
Health and Safety Management Systems Training. This programme
comprises a one day offsite training workshop on labour compliance
as well as health and safety management systems. The workshop seeks
to emphasise particular tools and systems which administrators,
safety managers or safety representatives in your supply chain can
implement at their workplace.
The ETI Supervisor Training
WIETA is partnering with the ETI and its
members on a Manager / Supervisor Training Programme. The Training
Programme was successfully piloted in Kenya earlier in the year and
the ETI are keen to roll out the programme in the UK and SA.
The Programme will assist farm/winery
managers and their supervisors to better understand their respective
roles in promoting and protecting workers rights and in particular
address areas common concern around discrimination and sexual
harassment.
The Programme will be scheduled for roll out
in May/June 2010. Details of venues and course content will be
posted on the WIETA website in due course.
TESCO UN Harvard
Training Partnership
WIETA is currently involved in concept discussions with Tesco on the
pilot implementation of a UN/Harvard initiative aimed at developing
a rights compatible grievance toolkit aimed at
maximising the opportunities to achieve sustainable solutions to
workplace labour concerns.
Tesco will be hosting an initial multi
stakeholder concept workshop on the project on the 17th November.
If you are a Union or an NGO who is
interested in participating in the reference group for the roll out
of this pilot, or a producer / farmer who would wish to participate
in the pilot, please contact Linda at the WIETA office for further
details.
For further enquiries on our training
workshops please contact Anthea at
anthea@wieta.org.za
or call +27 021 447 5660.
WIETA Newsletter
November 2009
Download the WIETA newsletter November 2009
here.
Strategic Planning 2010
- 2012
In preparation for 2010, WIETA will be
hosting a series of strategic planning sessions with member unions,
NGOs and Producer/Grower members in the Wine, Horticulture and
Flower industry.
The purpose of the sessions is to identify
areas of common concern and increased opportunity for collaboration
with one another as member constituencies and to develop a framework
that can be used to formulate strategic objectives for 2010 - 2012.
WIETA AGM
The AGM will be held in May 2010.
Venues and a date will be circulated closer to the time.
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