Labour minister Mildred Oliphant said the new salary would come into effect on March 1 and would rise by inflation plus 1.5 percent in subsequent years.
The farms, mainly owned by South Africa’s white minority, say they cannot afford to pay their mostly black workers more than the current 69 rand a day because of the cost of fuel and electricity, adding that higher wages may put jobs at risk.
The wage review follows numerous clashes between police and striking farm workers in fruit-growing regions of the Western Cape province in December and January. The protesters had demanded their daily pay more than double to 150 rand.
Oliphant also said the relationship between farm owners and workers, which in many cases has changed little in the 19 years since apartheid, had to improve.
“The relationship between farmers and farm workers is difficult and needs to be far better to achieve agricultural expansion, higher employment and better living conditions,” she told a news conference in the capital, Pretoria.
The strike in the Western Cape came at the end of a wave of labour unrest that began in South Africa’s platinum mines in August and swept through the trucking and agriculture sectors, hitting growth and undermining the country’s investment reputation.
