Perceiving a new future: Empowering farmworkers through equity sharing

Abstract

An innovative experiment in equity sharing is under way at Whitehall Farms, a deciduous fruit and grape farm in the Western Cape. Using borrowed money, the farm's own workers purchased fifty per cent equity in the operation. This article treats the equity‐sharing scheme as a case study and examines four aspects of it. First, the scheme, initiated during a period of transition, uncertainty and racial mistrust, encountered significant teething problems, and these are evaluated here for the lessons they contain. Secondly, evidence is assembled from microlevel data suggesting that significant increases in productivity might be attributed to the scheme. Thirdly, in‐depth interviews with participating and non‐participating workers uncovered very substantial changes in attitude, commitment and work intensity that also derive from the equity‐sharing scheme, and these changes are presented. Finally, the macroeconomic consequences are assessed. The experience of these workers with capital ownership and management m...