While news of the issue regarding the potentially disastrous shut-down of the SA Wine Industry Information and Systems NPC (Sawis) – as published on this platform as well as on News 24 and Netwerk 24 – has gone silent, things are definitely hotting-up behind the scenes of the South African wine industry officialdom with regards to this matter. Media queries have drawn a characteristic blank. While Olivia Poonah, head of the Wine Certification Authority (WCA) initially agreed to answer a few questions on the fray in writing, all correspondence has gone stonily silent.
South Africa Wine, the wine producers’ body who obviously has a great interest in the future of the industry’s world-renowned and efficient logistics body, i.e. Sawis, also declined any further comment on the matter, underscoring the industry’s lack of transparency. Were I a member of SA Wine, I would be concerned, the truth being known to die in darkness and all that.
The deal concerns the WCA’s announcement that it would terminate its professional agreement with Sawis, and take-over the body’s role despite Sawis’s 25-year run of keeping the engine-room of South African wine ticking along like a well-oiled engine. Why so, and what will replace Sawis are obviously matters of great concern to producers who are inspected by Sawis, pay levies for certification and are kept up to date through this organisation’s superlative information systems. (To name but a few of Sawis’s functions.)
It would appear that Sawis is, quite rightly so, kicking in its heels. Despite the WCA being ballsy about its industry role, on account of it being a statutory body having the back of the Minister of Agriculture, Sawis is now coming to the fore and stating that it is not going to be so easy.
With the ball being in Sawis’s court, and it being egged on by SA Wine, Sawis has come out swinging, in effect declaring that it is not going to allow Poonah and the WCA to have it quite their way.
In a recent statement to the industry – media and other irritable parties excluded – Sawis says that its board is currently considering the legal and financial ramifications of the formal notice of termination of the service level agreement (SLA) between itself and the WCA. Remember, Sawis is by law contracted by the WCA. Reading between the lines, this being the only option as outside commentary is not forthcoming, it may be assumed that Sawis could play hard-ball and head for the court. Something the Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp, would surely not want, seeing that wine is one of his portfolios and WCA falls under his stewardship.
“In respect of the proposed early termination of the SLA on 31 December 2027, the board of Sawis is obliged to first fully investigate the implications of this proposal before it can reach agreement on an accelerated termination date,” the statement reads. Now, this sounds commendably proactive and logical.
Yet, the question is: if Poonah is an active board-member of Sawis, why would it be necessary for said board to now suddenly revisit Poonah’s apparently unilateral decision? Am I correct in thinking that the WCA had taken its decision of tanking Sawis and considering all the ramifications without a Sawis board-member having tossed such an important decision around at a board-meeting or during daily communication with other members?
The Sawis statement goes on:
“Whilst the Board of Sawis appreciates (my italics) the WCA’s offer to transfer certification and inspection services employees to the WCA on 1 January 2027…. the termination of the SLA between the WCA and Sawis cannot be addressed on a piecemeal basis. The proposed changes have broader implications for other Sawis employees, which must also be considered.”
Once again, the kicker: “The principal obligation of the board of Sawis remains to all its employees and the broader wine industry.” This with a board-member who must have from her inception of this idea to terminate its agreement with Sawis known that the implications are extensive, and had seemingly not addressed these months ago when the WCA decision had been kindling.
What is distressing about this, is that while South African wine and wine farmers and viticulturists have built a competent, professional and dynamic wine industry, the authoritative bodies are stuck in the amateur era of petty politics and headless, knee-jerk decisions. Fragmented statements, and a sense of inept confusion.
They – and we – deserve better.
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