13/08/2026
CATI Statement: South Africa’s Minimum Wage Must Move Towards a Living Wage
Crimes Against The Innocent (CATI) supports the growing call for a minimum wage that reflects the real cost of living in South Africa. The current national minimum wage may provide a measure of survival, but it does not provide dignity, stability, or a realistic path out of poverty.
We believe that South Africa should adopt a phased minimum wage target of at least R12,000 per month, with particular urgency in the agricultural sector, where workers perform physically demanding labour that underpins the nation’s food security and export economy.
Agriculture is not a marginal industry—it is a strategic pillar of the South African economy. Farm workers produce the food consumed by millions of South Africans and contribute significantly to agricultural exports, rural employment, and foreign exchange earnings. Yet many agricultural workers remain trapped in intergenerational poverty despite working full-time.
A constructive way forward is not simply to announce a higher wage overnight, but to implement a phased Living Wage Framework over a three-year period. Government, organised labour, agricultural producers, and agribusiness should negotiate a structured pathway that allows businesses to adjust while ensuring that workers steadily move towards a dignified income.
CATI proposes the following:
- A phased increase to a minimum of R12,000 per month for full-time agricultural workers.
- Tax incentives and temporary wage-support measures for qualifying small and emerging farmers during the transition.
- Investment in agricultural productivity, irrigation, logistics, and technology to help offset labour-cost increases.
- Strong enforcement against exploitative labour practices, illegal deductions, and unregistered labour brokers.
- Regular review of wages based on food inflation and the cost of living in rural communities.
A better-paid agricultural workforce is not only a social justice issue—it is an economic development strategy. Workers with higher incomes spend more in local towns, support small businesses, improve nutrition and education outcomes for their children, and reduce dependence on social assistance. That strengthens rural economies and creates a more stable and productive agricultural sector.
South Africa cannot build a prosperous agricultural future on poverty wages. A nation that depends on farm workers for its food and exports has a moral and economic duty to ensure that those workers earn enough to live with dignity.
A minimum wage of R12,000 per month is not an act of charity; it is an investment in people, productivity, and the future of South African agriculture.
Crimes Against The Innocent (CATI)
Civil & Human Rights Organisation
De Doorns, Western Cape
