Contractual confusion and ‘blue ticks’: Agriculture graduates return to Union Buildings

Agriculture graduates returned to the Union Buildings, calling for reinstatement of the Assistant Agricultural Practitioners (AAP) programme – seven months after their initial attempt.

Former workers of the AAP programme marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The workers were previously hired to provide technical agricultural support to farmers within their communities, on short-term contracts from January to March last year.

Speaking to The Citizen, Marcus Dlabela said the workers were promised the contracts would be extended up to a year, however, that still has not happened.

He explained that the group previously reached out to Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza, who responded to their first call. However, their second attempt to engage Didiza on the issue was met with silence.

“She responded once, and for the second time she did not respond.”

The spokesperson said the group submitted their memorandum to the Agriculture Department, but didn’t get a response.

“Her office got the memo, but they never bothered to respond,” Dlabela said.

The collective then decided to draft a memorandum to the Presidency for urgent intervention.

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What promise?

Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said the AAP was only intended to last for three months with no option for extension.

He said the programme was aimed at giving participants work experience through exposure to farming.

Ngcobo also expressed that government financial constraints made it impossible to extend the programme beyond its intended lifespan.

While Dlabela said assistant agricultural practitioners were promised their contracts would be extended for a year, the Department of Agriculture disagrees.

“We’ve never made that promise,” Ngcobo told The Citizen.

“If there was an intention to renew, we would have renewed [the contracts] while they were still at work.”

He explained that participants who joined the programme later than others were retained for an additional month after it wrapped to complete their three-month contracts.

“There was a one-month extension, based on the provinces where they were. Some of them started late, [and] were given a month’s extension to cover the three months,” Ngcobo said.

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Which contract applies?

Contrary to Ngcobo’s contention, Dlabela said the contracts were previously extended for a further three months.

“But in terms of the second extension, we were promised that the contracts would actually last for a year,” Dlabela told The Citizen.

He explained the second agreement included a performance contract with a three-year duration and a three-month employment contract.

Wondering which duration applied, Dlabela said the group reached out to their immediate supervisors and managers for answers.

“Upon inquiry, we got screenshots and emails [indicating] they were going to extend [the contracts] for nine months while looking for money.

“The reason they could not sustain us was that there was no money.”

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‘Blue-ticked’

The group then escalated their pursuit for answers, reaching out to respective Agricultural MECs, however their queries fell on deaf ears.

“We never got any response, we’ve been blue-ticked, because we’re certain that they do read our emails.”

Despite the silence, Dlabela said the group were granted another month’s extension, bringing the total duration of their employment contracts to seven months.

However, the programme has since been discontinued – hence the group’s return to the Union Buildings.

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