About 600 workers at the Assmang Manganese plant in Cato Ridge have been served with retrenchment letters.
Image: SITHUNYELWE
About 600 workers will be without jobs by the end of May, unable to support themselves and their families, as the controversial Assmang Manganese Cato Ridge Ltd, a company linked to billionaire Patrice Motsepe, is set to close down.
The workers, most of whom live in Cato Ridge and KwaXimba in the Outer West region, have been served with retrenchment letters. Their future remains uncertain as some have had their health compromised because of the long-term exposure to hazardous chemicals.
Leaders in the area have described their plight as dire, with devastating economic effects for the entire Cato Ridge and KwaXimba area, which has a population of about 20 000.
“Six hundred workers unemployed equates to 6000 people being affected,” said Mlondi Mkhize, the ANC eThekwini Regional spokesperson.
“People will lose jobs because the company says there are financial losses. The understanding in the community is that a process was started between the union, labour and the employer to look into business rescue. They came back with a report, but that was not implemented. Union members then made an attempt to engage with the company to look for a facilitator to apply for the transfer of ownership according to the Labour Relations Act. That too was not explored. Workers became aware that a Malaysian company invested R50 billion into the company. When the workers through the union questioned this, there was no response,” said Mkhize.
The communication from the National Union of Mineworkers (Num), the union that represents most of the workers, has also not been very clear, said Mkhize.
He said the message from Num’s provincial branch was that the company was running at a loss, while the message from the national branch was that it was no longer profitable, had reached its lifespan and required a huge investment.
Acting on behalf of the workers, Mkhize said the ANC held a picket on Friday to raise their concerns about the job losses. They believed that not enough has been done by the company to prevent it from closing and workers from being unemployed.
Thembo Ntuli, who is the chairperson of the eThekwini Municipality’s Economic Development unit, arrived with a small group at the company but was not well received.
“The workers who are affected saw it fitting that the ANC demonstrate its unhappiness on their behalf. After the picket there is now an undertaking to meet with the city. The company never made an attempt to engage the city or the Department of Economic Development that plays an important role. What is frustrating is the attitude of the company, which is to just close without consideration for the workers,” said Mkhize.
He said the ANC’s role was to drive and take up community issues.
“We have to do something about it,” said Mkhize.
The uMkonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has also voiced its concern over the looming job losses.
Musa Mkhize, the MK Party’s member of provincial legislature who resides in the area, said he knew the affected workers personally and their situation was dire.
“It is a really sad and serious situation. Many of them are not medically fit to find work elsewhere,” said Mkhize.
He said none of the workers have been trained or given support to start their own small, micro or medium enterprises (SMMEs).
“There has been no small business development over the years. Non-black businesses have been benefitting since 1948, and the same company wants to remove the people from KwaXimba who made them billionaires,” said Mkhize.
But what was even more frustrating, said Mkhize, was that the situation was being politicised.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party has questioned why eThekwini municipal workers were part of a picket held by the ANC outside the Assmang Manganese plant in Cato Ridge.
Image: Supplied
“We are deeply dismayed by the actions of certain ANC politicians who have chosen to politicise this issue, knowing full well that the closure of Assmang will result in widespread unemployment. These politicians who have benefitted from their connections to the owners of Assmang, particularly (President Cyril Ramaphosa’s) brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe, who has bailed out the ANC and made significant donations during election periods, are now grandstanding on the poverty and struggles of the people of KwaXimba and KwaZulu-Natal at large,” said Mkhize.
He said the MK Party was committed to addressing the needs of the people.
“In the coming months, we will unveil a series of initiatives aimed at creating sustainable job opportunities through new development projects. Our focus will be on empowering the local community, ensuring that the transition from Assmang’s closure leads to meaningful economic growth and decent job opportunities,” said Mkhize.
Responding to Mkhize’s comment about politicising the issue and the ANC benefitting from Motsepe, the regional spokesperson said it was a well-known fact that Motsepe made donations to many political parties, not just the ANC.
“Further, Musa Mkhize was an ANC councillor in the area for 10 years. He must tell us what he knows about benefitting from Motsepe and other companies in the area because we are not aware of it. He should explain how he knows this information and if he is at the centre of it,” said Mkhize.
Muzikayise Zakwe, regional secretary for Num said that they were opposed to any form of employees dismissal or retrenchments. Attempts to get a comment from Assmang Manganese were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
Last year, the union reached a five-year wage agreement with the company.
In 2008 the Cato Ridge plant had a fatal explosion at one of its furnaces where six workers lost their lives and four were seriously injured. The explosion happened while the company was in negotiations with lawyers and union representatives who were acting on behalf of workers who were seeking compensation for suffering from long-term exposure to manganese, which causes manganism.
Assmang has faced allegations regarding workers who alleged that they suffer from manganese poisoning.
The company has disputed the diagnosis. An out-of-court settlement was sought, but as late as 2018, the lawyer who represented 10 workers, Richard Spoor, cited studies locally and in the USA which show that there is likely a huge group of workers who've suffered brain damage in varying degrees due to manganese exposure in mines and smelters.
"Manganese is touted as the clean mineral vital to green energy revolution, thanks to the metal's potential in electric batteries. If these studies are correct, maybe not so much. We will be keeping a close eye on developments.
"Ten years on, Patrice Motsepe, Desmond Sacco and Assmang have not taken any responsibility for the terrible harm that they did to the Cato Ridge workers, several of whom died and several more who are terribly disabled. This is not going away," wrote Spoor on X in 2018.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE