South Africa is suffering a drop in its workforce, following the departure of thousands of foreign workers in the wake of a wave of xenophobic attacks, anti-migrant protests and intensified immigration enforcement.
South African farmers are sounding the alarm – such as Lloyd Hadebe, deputy president of the Farmers' Association in KwaZulu-Natal, the region hardest hit by anti-immigration protests. "Labour shortages are already occurring on sugarcane farms, for instance" he told RFI's correspondent in South Africa, "because these sectors require manual labor on an almost daily basis." "We intend to engage with the government to have it strengthen our immigration laws, but also to urge it to work towards regularising the status of those who meet the requirements for legal status, and to put an end to the long waiting periods for those who need to resolve their administrative situation,' he added. Deserted fields Zimbabwean farmworker Aaron Majatamhe works in one of South Africa's top fruit-producing regions and describes a shortage of workers. "I see a lot of farm owners who are crying now... people have to harvest those naartjies [mandarins] but there is no one," the 33-year-old told French news agency AFP. The same shortage, he said, is looming in the vineyards. "It's time to cut off the grapes and there is no one."
