Durban - More than 700 employees of tenderpreneur Shauwn Mpisane have lodged a grievance with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) over severance pay.
Police were called to the CCMA offices in the city centre on Wednesday as a precaution when 300 people, claiming to be employees of Mpisane’s company, Zikhulise Cleaning Maintenance and Transport, gathered outside.
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The workers, some wearing Zikhulise T-shirts and others ANC regalia, said they were contracted to work on RDP houses in the uMlazi and KwaDukuza areas, but claim they were not paid last year and said the houses had still not been completed.
Some of the workers who spoke said they approached the CCMA in November and December and their wage dispute was to be heard on Wednesday, however, no representative from Mpisane’s company arrived.
The matter was re-scheduled for next month.
Contacted for comment afterwards, Mpisane said she was unaware of the CCMA dispute because her offices were closed for the festive season and would only reopen next week.
“I’m hearing from you about this for the first time and cannot respond on something I don’t know about,” she said.
The businesswoman said all work on her company’s RDP contracts, particularly the contract for uMlazi, stopped in November 2013 because of an alleged lack of funds from the government for these housing projects.
“In my company, not a single person who reported for work was not paid,” she said. When her company reopened and she had received the necessary documents, Mpisane said she would respond.
CCMA spokeswoman, Lusanda Myoli, confirmed the hearing on Wednesday and said it was postponed to accommodate the large numbers.
She said Zikhulise’s human resources manager was present and a conciliation process proceeded, but a certificate for non-resolution was issued and scheduled for arbitration next month.
In March, Mpisane, whose company has earned millions of rand in contracts for low-cost housing, blamed the provincial Department of Human Settlements for her company’s financial woes, which saw the halting of work on thousands of low-cost houses in the city and KwaDukuza.
Mpisane had reportedly confirmed then that hundreds of workers had neither returned to work nor been paid since they had closed for the holidays in December 2014. She hoped that the work would resume in April 2015.
It was also reported that the Department of Human Settlements and the eThekwini Municipality had denied there was a problem with the provision of low-cost houses.
The KwaDukuza Municipality had said it was not dealing directly with the payment of housing service providers.
In April, subcontractors, who claimed to be employed by Zikhulise, had taken to the uMlazi streets to protest.
At the time, the protesters said they had stopped work for the festive season in December 2014 with the understanding they would resume duties in January last year, but this did not happen. However, Mpisane was adamant at that time that those protesters were not her employees, but employed by subcontractors.
In November, it was further reported that Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, was still awaiting section 36 reports from municipal manager S’bu Sithole and had asked the provincial Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube to assist.
Initially, the DA had asked Madonsela to investigate the relationship between the council and Zikhulise and this investigation had subsequently expanded to include all section 36 contracts awarded by the city in the past 10 years.
Daily News