Solidarity set to strike over ‘white exclusion’

Trade Union Solidarity has served Sasol in Sasolburg with a strike notice, which may see the union picket within the next few days.

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said the trade union would begin with a picket followed by a full-blown strike action any day from Friday.

Members of Solidarity claim white employees are being excluded because of their race from an employee share ownership plan known as Khanyisa.

According to Solidarity, Sasol had announced Khanyisa, in terms of which its black employees would get shares worth R500,000, while explicitly stating that white employees and foreign nationals would be excluded from obtaining shares.

“Our members at Sasol unanimously said: Enough is enough. This type of crude racial exclusion cannot be tolerated any longer. These white workers are also valuable,” Hermann said.

The scheme succeeded the previous Inzalo Scheme, which was a financial failure, but included white employees. Hermann said the new scheme was, therefore, a case study for the exclusion white people are experiencing in general.

The union on behalf of its members at Sasol sent the strike notice on Tuesday, following a vote in which 95% of the unions’ Sasolburg members voted to go on strike, thereby giving the union a strike mandate, and allowing them to serve Sasol with a 48-hour strike notice.

Initially planned for Monday, Hermann said the strike notice did not mean the strike would necessarily commence after 48 hours.