The company allegedly told more than 70 foreign national employees to run away before the inspection team arrived.
An inspection on Friday shut down a Chinese-owned cement products manufacturing company in Rustenburg for noncompliance with several regulations.
The team comprised the Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services, South African Police Service (Saps), the Department of Home Affairs’ Immigration Unit, the Municipal Traffic department, and inspectors from the Rustenburg Municipality.
The cement products manufacturing company in Rustenburg was shut down for failure to adhere to labour legislation and Municipal by-laws.
According to Employment and Labour spokesperson Teboho Thejane, the company was allegedly found to be non-compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), the Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA), and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA).
The employer could allegedly not produce any payslips, contracts of employment for his employees, or attendance registers. As a result, the employer was given a fine of R15 000.
Most of those present were not registered for Unemployment Insurance. The employer was issued a compliance order for not registering and failing to declare employees.
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Contraventions
The employer was also found to have allegedly employed a Chinese national who was on a visiting Visa and another undocumented foreign national. It was fined R3 000, and the undocumented employee has been detained by the Immigration Unit.
“Eight Prohibition Notices were issued for operating forklifts which are not load tested, operating the batching plant which is not maintained and operated by competent people, moving plant equipment which is not maintained and operated by competent people, failure to zone areas with noise above the noise ranting limits, zoned as noise zone, and respiratory zone not marked or zoned and none provision of PPE on the respiratory zone, among others. These led to the closure of the company,” said Thejane.
“When arriving at the factory, Deputy Minister Jomo Sibiya, accompanied by the Rustenburg Local Municipality Executive Mayor Shiela Mabale-Huma, was shocked to find machinery running without operators as they ran away just when the entourage approached the site.”
The company was also found to be running a loan scheme for employees, charging 20% interest per R100.
It also operated a tuckshop and a chicken business on the premises, selling to employees and the nearby community.
“The company also had a 10 000 litre fuel tank, which was not certified as per the Municipal By-Laws. The tuckshop and the chicken business have since been closed off, and the company was also slapped with another R10 000 fine for violating the municipal by-laws.”
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Company tipped off
According to Thejane, a mole informed the inspection team that the employer instructed more than 70 foreign nationals to escape using a lifting machine to cross the high fence. Some of them were watching from the top of a hill near the factory, he said.
The mole is suspected to have come from the inspection team. Sibiya has initiated an investigation to find the culprit who tipped off the employer.
“Among us, there is someone who tipped this employer. We will get the employer’s number and find out who within us called prior to our arrival,” said Sibiya.
“Our presence here is not punitive; we want the company to comply.”
Chinese nationals sentenced
This comes just two days after seven Chinese nationals were sentenced for running a human trafficking and child labour operation.
They were convicted on 160 charges, including human trafficking, kidnapping, contraventions of immigration laws and the exploitation of workers, in February.
In November 2019, police and labour officials raided a factory called Beautiful City in Village Deep, Johannesburg.
Inside, 91 Malawian nationals were discovered working under exploitative conditions at the illegal enterprise, which produced cotton fibre sheets. Among them were 37 children.
On Wednesday, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg sentenced Kevin Tsao Shu-Uei, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying and Zhang Zhilian to 20 years in prison each. Their company was ordered to pay a fine of R300 000.
