Workers' fear and uncertainty

Workers’ belongings, including cooking utensils and mattresses at a Newcastle factory raided by the Hawks and the provincial labour department last week. Four Chinese and one Swazi national have been charged with allegedly trafficking 72 people from Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique to work in the factory.

Workers’ belongings, including cooking utensils and mattresses at a Newcastle factory raided by the Hawks and the provincial labour department last week. Four Chinese and one Swazi national have been charged with allegedly trafficking 72 people from Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique to work in the factory.

Published Feb 16, 2017

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Durban - For thousands of Swazi textile workers, it’s either they cross the border to find work in factories in South Africa where they endure “slave like” working conditions, or they starve.

This is according to Wonder Mkhonza, secretary-general of the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (Atuswa).

Mkhonza spoke to The Mercury following the arrest of one Swazi and four Chinese nationals for allegedly trafficking 72 people from Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique to work in a textile factory in Newcastle.

Yesterday the five accused appeared in the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court to apply for bail. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Kara said the bail hearing had been adjourned to next week for judgment. Mkhonza said the exodus from Swaziland came after the withdrawal of the kingdom from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

The US legislation opens African markets to US exports. It was renewed for South Africa and other SADC countries until 2025 but Swaziland was removed. A June 2014 statement from the US presidency cited Swaziland’s lack of progress in the protection of internationally-recognised worker rights as the reason.

Mkhonza said after the decision, factories closed or retrenched staff as the country’s textile industry was dependent on the duty-free exports to the US.

“Even Swati [Swazi] workers who retained their jobs at factories which found markets in South Africa left en masse [to South Africa], because the pay was double or more,” he said.

The Mercury spoke to a 34-year-old Swazi woman who lost her job when the Chinese-owned textile company in Swaziland that she had worked for closed. The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said: “I heard people were finding work in Newcastle. They came back looking well with things for their families.”

With detailed directions, a bag of clothes, two pots, a plate and spoon, she left her family in the industrial hub of Matsapha, near Manzini at the heart of Swaziland.

“I was told when I got to Newcastle there would be many factories and I was to just stand in the street and I would definitely get a job by nightfall” she said.

The information was spot on. Within hours of arriving she said she and others she found milling around were approached by a Chinese man who asked if they were looking for work.

Her experience as a machinist counted in her favour and she was “employed” immediately.

“He took us to the factory and we started working from that day,” she said.

In a separate room in the factory, there were bunk beds for them to sleep in and stoves to cook on.

“They pay me well. If I work fast I can earn up to R2600 every fortnight. I go home every month, I don’t have a work permit, I just get my passport stamped at the border.”

However, she said as news of the raid at the other factory had spread last week, it had roused fear and uncertainty among workers.

Scared

“I am thinking about going back home. I’m scared. We heard the people taken from the raid are being kept somewhere until the court case is finished, they can’t go home or come back to work.”

She said she would not chose to live in a factory or have to report her every move to her employer.

“All that matters to me is that I can send money home. I am a breadwinner and I have two children to put through school.”

Through the stokvel saving clubs at work, she was already saving for her eldest to go to college in two years.

“I couldn’t finish high school because my poor family could not afford it, but now my son and I are talking about college, something I could have never imagined was a possibility with the salary in Swaziland,” she said.

Mkhonza said it was costly for those who found work in Durban and Joburg to renew their visitor permits every month, so they either sent their passports with someone or were in the country with expired permits. Many others crossed the border illegally and their precarious status in the country, made them vulnerable to exploitation.

Simon Eppel, a senior researcher at the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) said companies that placed orders at factories like this were not blameless.

“Which design houses and retailers prop up factories which break the law?

“We fear that these may be blue-chip companies who, apart from facilitating human rights abuses, are also placing their companies and brands under enormous reputational risks,” said Eppel.

The Mercury

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