SIZA Social and Environmental Programme Implementation
ASC Food Safety Consultants prepares South African producers, packhouses and exporters for SIZA social and environmental audits, from the self assessment and gap assessment through the evidence file to a mock ethical audit and corrective action. ASC Consultants SA is itself a SIZA member.
Consulting is charged hourly. A full implementation is quoted on scope once ASC has seen the site and the size of the gap, and ASC will tell you before the quote if the work is smaller than you think.
SIZA membership
ASC Consultants SA is a member of the Sustainability Initiative of South Africa, and works as a consultancy and training provider to SIZA members across South African agriculture.
Account name: ASC Consultants SA. Membership number: 20240910 112270. Verify it at siza.co.za.
The Sustainability Initiative of South Africa, known as SIZA, is a South African non profit programme through which farms, packhouses and exporters show buyers how they treat their people and manage their natural resources. SIZA describes itself as a platform for agricultural stakeholders to ensure ethical and environmentally sustainable trade, and it aims to give growers one standard and one audit whichever market they supply.
European and United Kingdom retailers expect independently verified assurance on ethical labour practice and environmental management before they will list South African fruit, wine or vegetables, and they expect it every season. SIZA has pursued recognition so that one audit can serve more than one customer, through benchmarking and recognition arrangements with other programmes. What your own buyer will accept is still a question to put to SIZA and to that buyer in writing, rather than an assumption to build a season on.
ASC Consultants SA is a SIZA member and works inside the same platform your own membership uses. ASC implementation consulting closes the distance between what your records show and what the SIZA standards ask for. ASC works through the self assessment with you, builds the evidence an auditor will look for, and where it helps, audits your site as a rehearsal. Consulting is charged hourly, and a full implementation runs over days or weeks and is quoted once scope, sites and crops are agreed.
Key facts at a glance
When a business calls ASC in
- A retailer or exporter has made a SIZA audit a condition of supply for the coming season and your site has never been audited on ethical grounds.
- The self assessment has surfaced gaps in employment, wage or working time records that you cannot close before harvest, or a previous audit left non conformances that keep returning.
- You house workers on the farm and want living conditions and maintenance evidence handled properly rather than argued about on the day.
- You are adding the environmental programme to an existing social audit and need water, energy, soil, chemical and waste records built from a standing start.
How ASC works with you
Gap assessment and the self assessment
Work starts with the self assessment SIZA members complete before a third party audit is arranged, because one that flatters the farm reappears as findings on the day. ASC walks the site and reads what is there: employment files, wage and time records, the chemical store, water use records, waste arrangements and the health and safety file. You then receive a written gap assessment ranking each gap by how likely it is to become a non conformance, with an owner and a date.
The social programme, anchored in South African law
SIZA’s social requirements sit on South African labour law, so ASC builds the file against the statutes an auditor will test: particulars of employment under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, wages and deductions meeting the National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018, and hours, overtime, rest periods and leave that are recorded rather than remembered. It must also show no forced labour and no child labour anywhere in the operation, seasonal and labour broker staff included, freedom of association under the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 with disciplinary and grievance procedures that follow it, non discrimination under the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, a worker committee that meets and minutes what it discusses, and health and safety under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993. Where the farm houses workers, ASC covers living conditions and maintenance with the occupier rights under the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997.
The environmental programme and readiness for audit day
The environmental standard is built around water, soil, energy, materials and waste, and farm ecosystems and biodiversity, and it is evidence driven: an auditor asks for meter readings, water use authorisations, soil results, spray records and disposal records. ASC helps you establish what you may lawfully abstract and discharge under the National Water Act 36 of 1998, keep soil and land management defensible under the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act 43 of 1983, hold only registered agricultural remedies applied to their labels under the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act 36 of 1947, and put chemical storage, container disposal, waste and energy use into figures. Measurement is set up so improvement shows year to year, and the work closes by rehearsing audit day itself.
What you receive
| Deliverable | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Gap assessment report | Your site measured against the SIZA social and environmental requirements, each gap rated for risk, with an owner and a date. |
| Self assessment support | The self assessment worked through with your team so what you submit is backed by documents you can produce. |
| Social compliance file | Contracts and particulars of employment, wage, deduction and working time records, disciplinary and grievance procedures, worker representation records, and the forced labour, child labour and discrimination policies. |
| Health, safety and housing pack | Risk assessments, statutory appointments, training and protective equipment records, incident reporting, and where housing is provided, living conditions and maintenance evidence. |
| Environmental evidence set | Water use and authorisation records, energy and waste data, soil and land management records, chemical registers, container disposal records and biodiversity notes. |
| Mock ethical audit and corrective action plan | One day on site, findings presented the same day and the written report within two weeks, then a plan stating the root cause, action, owner and closure evidence for each item. |
Everything you need for SIZA and ethical trade, in one place
Consulting is one route. The ASC toolkits carry the documents and registers, the online courses build the competence your audit will test, and the library is free.
Do it yourself
Editable ASC document toolkits and templates, built by the same auditors who run the audits.
Train your team
Accredited online courses on ascfoodsafetytraining.com, studied at your own pace with certificates on completion.
Read first
Free guidance from the ASC library, written for South African food businesses.
Who this work suits
Growers holding GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance are usually asked for SIZA in the same season, and ASC scopes both together where the timing allows.
This service is written for South African producers and the sites that pack and store their fruit: deciduous and stone fruit, citrus, table grapes, wine grapes and cellars, subtropical fruit, berries and vegetables, along with packhouses, cold stores and exporters. It suits groups as well as single farms, and producers holding GLOBALG.A.P. IFA who are now asked for social and environmental assurance on that base.
ASC Consultants SA is itself a member of the Sustainability Initiative of South Africa, so the platform, the standards and the way findings are handled are familiar from the inside rather than read from a guidance note. ASC Food Safety Consultants is led by Mthokozisi Nkosi, a SAATCA registered lead auditor, and works on site across South Africa. ASC is SAATCA registered, a FoodBev SETA Accredited Provider No. 587/00337/1900, and B-BBEE Level 1.
Where ASC stops
ASC is not a certification body. ASC does not certify anyone, does not award a certificate against any scheme, and cannot guarantee the result of an audit or a certification decision, which belongs to an accredited certification body after its own third party audit. For SIZA, ASC is not the body that audits you. The audit is conducted by an audit firm approved by SIZA, appointed and paid by you, and ASC has no influence over its findings. Any audit ASC runs on your site is preparatory and carries no standing with SIZA or your buyer. Confirm the approved audit bodies and the audit cycle applying to your membership with SIZA before you set dates.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need the social programme, the environmental programme, or both?
That is set by your buyers rather than by ASC. Put it to your exporter or retailer in writing, confirm the answer with SIZA, and ASC will scope the work to what you are actually asked to hold.
What does the ASC ethical audit involve?
One consultant spends a day on your site. The day runs as a real audit does: an opening meeting, a review of employment and health and safety records, confidential worker interviews without management present, a walk of the working areas and any housing, and a closing meeting. Findings are presented to management before the consultant leaves, and the written report follows within two weeks.
What happens if the audit raises non conformances?
Findings are worked back to a root cause rather than patched. ASC helps you write a corrective action plan naming the action, the person responsible, the date and the evidence that will close the item, then helps you gather it in the form the auditor asked for. A finding is not closed because you say it is. It is closed when the named evidence is on file and the practice has changed.
What are we required to pay farm workers?
Farm workers are covered by the National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018 and the national minimum wage applies to them. The rate is set by the Minister of Employment and Labour and adjusted by notice, so confirm the rate in force for your pay period with the Department of Employment and Labour rather than a figure carried over from last season.
What happens if the SIZA audit raises non conformances we cannot close before the season?
Tell ASC early rather than late. Findings are worked back to a root cause and a corrective action plan is written naming the action, the person responsible, the date and the evidence that will close the item. Where an item genuinely cannot be closed inside the season, the honest route is to show the auditor and the buyer a dated plan that is being followed, with evidence of the steps already taken, rather than a claim of closure that will not survive the next audit. ASC cannot influence the audit outcome, because the audit belongs to the approved audit body you appoint.
Be ready before the season, not during it
Tell ASC which buyer has asked for SIZA, which programmes are in scope, how many sites and crops are involved and when your season allows work on site. You will have a scope and a quote against it.
Not ready for a quote? Use Where Do I Start to see which standard your market actually needs, or book a virtual consultation.