FORMER AFRIT EMPLOYEES EXPOSE HARSH WORKING CONDITIONS AND DEMAND REINSTATEMENT THERE

Former employees of trailer-manufacturing company Afrit that is based in Rosslyn, Tshwane, staged a silent picket at the company’s premises on Tuesday to expose harsh working conditions there and also to demand to be reinstated after they were fired from the company in 2013.

The picket resembled a funeral atmosphere as it was conducted in a sombre mood with no toyi-toying, dancing or songs, but with the former workers carrying a mock coffin with their hands chained and their mouths sealed with a tape.

Former Afrit employee Abram Tlhapi from Hebron told Tshwane Talks that he worked at Afrit for more than 10 years and that his dismissal was very painful and unfair, and that at the time of their dismissal their belongings as workers were thrown out of the premises of the company and a result they lost lots of valuable personal belongings.

“Though we received our UIF and provident funds, our gripe is that we were unfairly dismissed and as a result life has been difficult for us as married men because relationships with our wives have turned sour because we can’t provide for our families, and this has been the case since 2014 as many of us have not managed to get employed ever since,” he said.

He appealed to the Department of Labour to furnish them with information that they as unfairly-dismissed workers need in their fight against Afrit.

Tlhapi also appealed to Afrit to stop exploiting black workers and pay them what is due to them as they are making lots of money for the company.

China Mahlangu from Klipgat said the unfair dismissal affected them badly because they got infected with lung diseases at the time they were working for Afrit but they could consult doctors in this regard as they had an income, but at the moment they can’t do so as they can’t afford to consult doctors, and that some of the people he used to work with at Afrit have died as a result of the said lung diseases they got when working for Afrit.

He said his child used to be a university student but has since dropped out as he has no funds to pay for his studies.

He pointed out that though he has worked at Afrit for 14 years, he has not received his UIF and provident fund and was surprised when the Department of Labour told him to stop applying for UIF, and that another surprise was that when he went to the Bargaining Council he was told that he can’t get his provident fund as it was still too little; that he has to find another job to increase it.

Jabulani Ndlazi from Soshanguve, whi is Aldi a dismissed employee, told Tshwane Talks that they marched to Afrit on Tuesday to expose and highlight the inhuman conditions which Afrit workers have to endure at work as Afrit regards workers as money- making machines and not humans at all.

“When you try to speak out against unfair labour practices at Afrit you get dismissed,; when a fellow worker dies or gets injured during work time workers are not allowed to stop working and are told that when one car rolls over on the highway in an accident the highway is not closed as cars continue to pass through,” he said.

“When you get injured at work nothing happen; when you try to speak out you are threatened with dismissal; when you try to report these shameful working conditions to the government your complaints are set aside and ignored,” he said.

He explained that the coffin that they were carrying is a symbol of all people who died while on duty at Afrit and that the sellotapes on their mouths symbolise the fact that they are not allowed to speak about bad working conditions at Afrit, as doing so will result in a worker being dismissed.

“The chains on our hands indicate the fact that once you work for Afrit you are literally in jail; you are a prisoner mentally and physically,” he said.

He explained that he and his fellow workers were dismissed in 2013 around March or April after downing tools in demand for an increase in salaries and equal payment in the company’s profit-sharing scheme.

Another former employee of Afrit Thapeli Rafedile told Tshwane Talks that the problem with the said profit-sharing scheme arose when the management wanted to use the “divide-and-rule” tactics by trying to pay workers in terms of years of service, while they as workers wanted equal payment for all regarding profit-sharing.

The day shift employees are the ones who embarked on a picket but the management fired all workers including those who were not there due to being on annual leave or were about to report for night shift duties.

“There is a clear cover-up by the management of Afrit in this regard for the deaths and injuries that always happen at the company and are not reported to the general public and the government,” said Reyaga Community Projects leader and founder Mpho Gosana.

He said no sane employer can dismiss workers for demanding a mere R10 increase and that the whole exercise was to stop the workers from disseminating information about deaths, injuries and
harsh working conditions prevalent at Afrit.

“The dismissed Afrit employees came to us as Reyaga Community Projects to seek help as they had knocked on many doors without success and were failed by institutions like the Labour Court as well as Advocate Dali Mpofu who abandoned them without a valid reason,” said Gosana.

To Afrit company Gosana asked the following question:

“Are you an investor or exploiter in this country?”

The dismissed workers demands are as follows:

1.Reinstatement of all fired workers.
2.Provision of safe working conditions for all at the workplace.
3.Accountability for deaths and injuries at Afrit.

Be that as it may, Afrit touts itself as the best trailer-manufacturing in Africa and among the top 30 manufacturers in the whole world, and that equal opportunity is one of the company’s key principles.