Pretoria - Operation Dudula members have accused some companies in Tshwane of employing hundreds of “ghost workers” who didn’t appear in their official records because they were undocumented foreigners.
In a joint march with Put South Africa First, they escalated their campaign to the Rosslyn industrial area to demand that big companies in the area stop employing undocumented foreign nationals.
They targeted Praga Technical (Pty) Ltd and Afrit Trailers, alleging they were among some of the big companies employing numerous ghost employees, many of whom were undocumented foreign nationals.
National secretary-general of Operation Dudula, Zandile Dabula, said the ghost employees were working, but were not registered with companies as they were undocumented.
She said it was for this reason that they told the companies during their visit that they knew they had 2 000 employees. However, a company would only be able to account for 1 000 workers as the rest were ghost employees.
“Even if we were to check their payroll it would only show 800 employees, but we know there is more than that as the rest are undocumented.”
Dabula said they realised that the problem was not limited to the companies’ actions, therefore they had submitted a letter to the Department of Labour requesting a meeting with the minister.
According to her, they wanted the department to do proper checks on companies to sort out the problem.
The two organisations also said they wanted the department to adhere to the ministerial directive gazetted on February 2 this year, which they described as a critical skills list.
Operation Dudula said it would also conduct a similar operation in the Eastern Cape today and in Durban on April 10.
"We will give the department 14 days to respond, failing which we will march to demand that proper checks are done within these companies; the laws are there and they just need to be practised.”
Regarding Operation Dudula, Dabula warned: “The movement is spreading itself; we no longer need to market it because people already love Operation Dudula.
“We are not worried about this sparking xenophobic attacks because we're practising high discipline and high morale. We're enforcing the laws to do what they need to do.”
Meanwhile, what started off as a handful of members on the ground, gathered next to the Rosslyn Police Station, saw hundreds of Operation Dudula members joining in.
They made their message clear, that undocumented foreign nationals would not be allowed to take up positions in workplaces that “should be“ for South African citizens.
In letters submitted to the two companies, the organisations warned them to comply with Section 19 (4) of the Immigration Act as well as Section 8 of the Employment Services Act.
In this regard, the companies were urged to put South Africans first, especially the youth, when hiring employees, and for low-earning jobs to be reserved for South Africans.
Refilwe Ngoetjana, human resources manager at Praga Technical, denied the allegations that the company employed 2 000 workers, and instead said they had 801 employees, of whom 11 were documented foreign nationals.
John Rossouw of Afrit indicated that they would have to look at their company structures and within their process to verify all the statutes and go through the relevant legislation as requested.
"We welcome any departmental structure to come and audit us, as we do frequently get audited by the Department of Labour in terms of employment equity, so we'll have a look at discussing (this) with the board of executives and get back to you.”
Rossouw stressed that of 1 100 workers, the company had only four foreign nationals.
The organisations demanded that undocumented foreign nationals be removed from the companies, and that the curricula vitae of South Africans be accepted.
Pretoria News