Charlene Nieuwoudt
E
xploring innovative ways in
which to make contracts
easier to understand for
farm workers, Indigo Fruit
Growers who produce, pack and
supply Clemengold™ mandarins to
the local and international market, is
championing change in the industry
by offering their fruit picking employees the world’s first Comic Contracts.
Comic Contracts® is an idea developed by Robert de Rooy, a South
African lawyer based in Cape Town
and legal counsel for Clemengold™
for many years. A Comic Contract
uses visualisation to improve the
understanding of contractual terms:
the parties are represented by characters and illustrations are used to
explain the terms of the contract.
Challenging the taken-for-granted
assumption that only text can capture the terms of a contract, a Comic
Contract is a binding agreement using mainly pictures instead of words.
The parties sign the comic as their
Contract. Robert de Rooy explains:
“It is based on the fact that pictures
are easier to understand and easier
to remember. The purpose of a
Comic Contract is to empower the
parties to understand each other, to
understand what they expect from
each other, and what they are committing to.”
Comic Contracts® have been especially designed to address the needs
of vulnerable employees: employees
who either cannot read well or have
difficulties understanding the language in which the contract is written. Whilst the legal system requires
that all employees have an employ-
ment contract, it assumes that everyone can read proficiently and understand the contractual terms presented to them. However, this is
rarely the case in South Africa. Especially in sectors employing lowskill workers (agriculture, mining,
manufacturing, domestic workers),
employees are rarely in a position
to understand – or question – the
contracts that they are given to
sign.
For Robert de Rooy, “the way in
which most contracts are drafted
and presented (‘this is standard,