TSHWANE BAHLALI DUDULA WANTS COMPANIES TO HIRE LOCALS INSTEAD OF FOREIGNERS

Non- Profit Organisation (NPO) Tshwane Bahlali Dudula wants employers at the Sunderland Ridge Industrial Hub in Tshwane to stop employing foreigners and instead start employing local South African citizens.

The NPO rallied many unemployed people in Tshwane to march to the industrial hub on Wednesday to highlight what it regards as “discrimination and unlawful behaviour targeted at South African citizens by owners of the companies doing business at the hub.”

“There are 300 companies here at the Sunderland Ridge Industrial Hub and 98% of these companies have hired foreigners,” said Wave Mlangeni who is Chairperson of the Tshwane Bahlali Dudula branch in Ward 70, Mooiplaas Centurion.

“Zimbabweans and Malawians are the ones dominating here in terms of numbers and most of them are undocumented, and the ones who claim to be documented are using fake documents which were manufactured in the local settlement area,” he said.

He said foreigners use fake asylum seekers documents to be employed at these companies and the company owners know very well that those asylum seekers documents are fake, yet they employ the said foreigners based on the very fake documents.

“Many if not all companies in this country, including those that are here at the Sunderland Ridge Industrial Hub, prioritise foreigners instead of South Africans, that is why we are staging a protest march today to demand that the available jobs that are here must be given to South Africans,” said Mlangeni.

“These employers always hide behind the fact that South Africans are lazy, yet they haven’t given them a chance to work and see for themselves if South Africans are indeed lazy,” explained Mlangeni.

The NPO submitted memorandums to 10 companies which have been identified as the ones hiring most foreigners at the hub.

Mlangeni called upon many other unemployed South Africans to join them in their campaign to get jobs to be given back to South Africans becsuse during the days of apartheid foreigners were not there; that it was South Africans who were working in the factories and firms of this country.

“Employers who hire foreigners do so to avoid meeting basic conditions of employment requirements which entail decent pay, UIF, Provident Fund and medical aid; they benefit from cheap labour provided by foreigners who are prepared to work for peanuts,” fumed Mlangeni.

“To President Cyril Ramaphosa I would like to say: please prioritise South Africans so that they can be employed and have a better life because many things in this country have gone awry as many South Africans are not employed,” pleaded Mlangeni.

“Those who are saying organisations like ours are xenophobic are merely using the duck-and-dive tactic because they are uncomfortable about the fact that we can see that South Africa has gone to the dogs and we have now decided to take strong, visible action as an organisation so that the powers that be would take us and our demands seriously,” said Mlangeni emphatically as he in the process pointed out that many people in South Africa have resorted to crime and drugs due to being unemployed.

Janito Khoza who was at the protest march told Tshwane Talks that being unemployed and seeing foreigners being employed affects him “financially, spiritually, emotionally and physically.”

Khoza matriculated in 2017 and has never been employed in his life and he blames his situation on the fact that employers ignore South Africans and hire foreigners because South Africans know their rights in terms of labour laws.

He said he would do wonders for his mother and family should he be given a chance to work.

“I have been unemployed for three years now and am perturbed by my unemployment status; I want a job,” said Lerato Mothodze who was also at the march.

Copy of memorandum.