Last night around 2:30 pm the Fruit2U warehouse form the Le Roux Group was set on fire. During a visit this morning it was clear that the warehouse, which currently is packing stone fruit and a number of cold rooms was destroyed.
According to information from the Le Roux Group there is a suspicion of arson, but they could not and would not say much pending the investigation of the police.
Due to a rapid intervention of personnel and the fire service part of the cooling facilities, including the cooling tunnels and the office area were saved. There is smoke damage and, at the time of writing it was still not clear how much of the fruit stored in cold rooms was affected.
A spokesman from Le Roux confirmed further that they immediately looked for alternative packaging options and cooling. These have already been found, thus further damage to the fruit, which is currently being harvested, should be limited.
An initial estimate of the damage has yet to be made, but it is clear it will enter into millions of Rand.
Although occurrences like this are extremely bad, it must be stressed that these incidents are isolated. Jacques du Preez from Hortgro, stressed that the strikes and attacks are limited to the Western Cape region, and 95% of fruit harvest and exports are functioning as normal. "The strikes are being initiated mostly by seasonal workers who are not from the area and people who are not even usually employed in the fruit industry. Farm workers who are happy with their wage and want to work are also severely intimidated by these “strikers”."
This is backed up by David Harris from David Harris Engineering Systems, who does business with fruit farms throughout South Africa, "These strikers are not all farm workers as most of the farm workers are happy and working as much as they can, but the problems are that they are intimidated by the strikers brought in by the Anc government and unions."
In the area near De Doorns where most of the disruption is taking place, there are varying reports of police clashing with groups of strikers. Some say it has been necessary for the N1 highway, the main artery of the country between Johannesburg and Cape Town, to frequently close to all traffic.