When will they listen to us? A story of social responsibility and workers voice in the South African wine industry

Local MSIs have appeared in sectors of the African horticultural industry aimed at bringing together key local stakeholder and ensuring the representation of vulnerable workers. This research explores the possible benefits of this bottom-up CSR approach by focusing on the potentials of local MSIs to overcome inherent problems of CoC. Taking WIETA in South Africa as a case study and drawing from a one month field research in the Western Cape, this paper shows important labour rights enhancement, exposing however limitations for workers’ direct voice to be heard in CSR. Relevance to Development Studies Despite growing acceptance of CSR among bilateral and multilateral development agencies, there is very little evidence of the actual impact of CSR in development. The lack of local input and the limitations to address vulnerable workers are crucial shortcomings of top-down CoC. Local MSIs represent a new development aimed at reverse this trend. Based on the WIETA study case, this paper explores the potential of local MSIs to enhance workers’ rights and develop an “ecology of knowledge”, i.e. making present the voice of vulnerable workers in the CSR agenda.