Dear Editor,
For a long time, I have been hearing a few sugar workers on Uitvlugt Estate talking about the future of that estate. The cane-cutters believe that when the fields used to be flooded for 6-8 months, they used to get better sugar cane. Nowadays without explanation, the fields are being flooded only for a few days and the canes reaped are way below the quality of what they used to get. Some of them said they openly expressed their disgust about this situation to the managers, who refused to listen to them or explain the reason. They are also saying that the types of canes being planted now are poorer as compared to the previous varieties that they have gradually done away with.
During the last harvest, some of them complained about the amount of sugar cane that was damaged. From what I’ve gathered, the canes were planted in the field and a few weeks later more were planted on the higher dam (dam beds) around the fields which had been planted earlier. Now, when the inner sugar canes are ready, the outer ones are not, but the cane-cutters still had to go ahead and burn the ripe ones and cut them before they lost their purity. Some of the outer canes got damaged when the cane-cutters started to cut and load the canes into the punts.
Editor, at present the welders on the Uitvlugt Estate are also complaining that there are no proper punts out of 2000 sets. They have been asking for a high pressure vacuum or a high pressure washer to clean the punts immediately after the canes have been discharged, because the debris left in the punts is causing severe damage and they are of the opinion that if they were cleaned the punts would be in better condition.
Now that sugar canes are not being cut the workers are saying every morning they have to go to the estates and beg the foreman/supervisors for any types of work, as shown in old-time movies with the dock workers. Those who are lucky get work, whilst the unlucky ones go away and try their luck all over again the next day.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
