ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the brief history of the South African wine industry that provides a context for the relations, politics and practices of the contemporary sector. Empowerment strategies are often interpreted conservatively to minimize expense and disruption and so investment in transformation has been limited. Prior to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 2004 (B-BBEE), the transformation discourse within the industry centred on worker rights, land reform, growth and competitiveness but, as it became clear that this agenda was not achieving the planned targets, the focus shifted to B-BBEE. WIETA's origins lie in an UK government ethical trade initiative (ETI) pilot project, which aimed to, and was arguably successful in, developing and refining inspection methods to monitor on-farm labour standards and create a platform that brought together the private sector, labour and civil society to talk about ethical trade for the first time. Sustainability Initiative of South Africa (SIZA) acts for fruit industry in same capacity as WIETA does for wine.
