About a hundred members of an organisation called ALKEBULAN Youth Development together with concerned residents of region 7 marched in protest to the offices of Mpumalanga Economic Growth (MEGA) on Friday.
This as they are aggrieved by the shenanigans that are going on at Ekandustria Park in Enkangala.
Convener of the march and also chairperson of ALKEBULAN Kagiso Popela told Tshwane Talks that their memorandum is based on concerns regarding three vital issues which they feel must be made known to the officials of MEGA, this as MEGA is the landlord or owner of Ekandustria Park.
“Foreigners have occupied the inoperational Ekandustria Park factories illegally, local residents are not employed at factories which are still operational as only foreigners have been employed there, and so we want to know what MEGA’s plans are on the issue of bringing back investors to Ekandustria Park so that local people can be employed in the factories that would be revived by investors,” said Popela as he spoke to Tshwane Talks at the march.
“Thina silwela amalungelo wethu,”(We are fighting for our rights), sang the toyi-toying marchers before Oliver Mogoro read and handed the memorandum to MEGA’s senior manager for facilities Malome Gafane.
In response, Gafane said allegations that ALKEBULAN has raised might be credible and as MEGA their role is to get to the bottom of the aforementioned allegations and give feedback within 14 days as requested by the marching ALKEBULAN members.
“Beyond that, the actual plan for Ekandustria Park will then be revealed to all as we have done in the past and we take their concerns seriously as one of the points they have raised is that of employment,” said Gafane.
He elaborated that Ekandustria Park is seen as one of the key employment centres in the region and MEGA must fulfill that role as per its mandate,” he said.
One of the marchers expressed frustration at Gafane as they as residents have submitted several memorandums to Gafane who always signs the memorandums but subsequently throws the said memorandums away and does nothing to address their concerns.
Another resident Ntombi Mgadi told fellow marchers that the age-limit policy of employing only people who are under the age of 35 years must be scrapped at Ekandustria factories, pointing out that on 25 May 2024 President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the policy must be scrapped as it was discriminatory.
“Let everybody be employed irrespective of age as we are all hungry and desperate to be employed,” she said.
SANCO Provincial Executive Committee member Caroline Theledi told Tshwane Talks that her organisation is in support of the march as what is happening at Ekandustria Park factories is of real concern to SANCO.
“As SANCO we really condemn what is happening here at Ekandustria Park factories because this was a beautiful place where many local residents used to work but now foreigners have occupied the premises and its only them who are working and living inside the factories,” she said.
Theledi pointed out that Ekandustria factories are now used as residential areas by foreigners while in actual fact the premises should be used as a businesssites and that the said foreigners must vacate the premises with immediate effect so that investors would come back and provide jobs for local residents.
“If these foreigners want a place to stay, then they must join us in the location and live there like we are doing at the moment,” she said.
The ALKEBULAN memorandum was read and presented as follows:
1. DISTURBING TREND OF PEOPLE LIVING IN EKANDUSTRIA PARK BUILDING.
A question arises as to whether Ekandustria Park is still an industrial area, or has it now been turned into a residential area by MEGA?
If it is an industrial area, then we call for urgent intervention to evict tenants who are illegally occupying the premises of Ekandustria Park.
The most concerning part of this whole matter is that some of the people who reside inside the premises are foreigners that we are not even sure whether they are legal or illegal in the country.
2.PREFERENTIAL EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE FROM OUTSIDE REGION 7.
We hereby submit that all factories at Ekandustria Park must employ residents of region 7 in the majority. We demand that MEGA must convene a meeting with tenants living in Ekandustria Park to check if there’s compliance with the demand above.
Furthermore, Section 49 sub section 3 of the Immigration Act makes provision that any employer who employs an illegal foreigner in violation of Section 38 of the Immigration Act shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine or a period of imprisonment.
We further demand that MEGA as the landlord should from time-to-time conduct intelligence-driven operations in collaboration with SARS, Home Affairs and the Department of Labour to ensure compliance with labour and immigration legislation at Ekandustria Park as this will alleviate the number of illegal activities there.
3. MEGA’s PLAN IN RETURNING INVESTORS TO EKANDUSTRIA PARK.
In recent years we have witnessed a notable number of companies leaving Ekandustria Park not because they were liquidated because these companies continue with operations at other areas, so we plead with MEGA to share with us information on why these companies left Ekandustria Park in such large numbers.
We would also like to know about MEGA’s plans to lure investors back to Ekandustria Park.
4.ACTION PLAN ABOUT EKASHOP
The dilapidated building of Ekashop is posing a security risk as many criminal activities are taking place there without any action being taken to stop them.
Therefore, in response to the above-mentioned demands, we are looking forward to your earnest response within 14 days with a physical follow-up meeting to deliberate the contents of the memorandum.