Minister likens working conditions at local textile factories to ‘modern-day slavery’
Nxesi's visit is part of an oversight as a "champion" of the Amajuba district, which also included the local municipalities of Newcastle, Dannhauser, and eMalangeni.
Clothing and textile factories in the Newcastle area have a low compliance rate with the country’s labour laws.
According to a statement by Employment and Labour Minister, Thulas Nxesi, to Times Live, a team of inspectors from various labour centres, the home affairs department, and the police conducted inspections of factories in the Newcastle and Madadeni industrial park last week to address, what he called, ‘the high levels of worker exploitation.’
“During the campaign, 70 factories with 30,539 employees were inspected, including six night inspections. The compliance rate was disappointingly low at only 8% of the inspected factories,” Nxesi told Newcastle residents on Thursday at the Amajuba TVET Stadium in Madadeni.
He claimed that immigration officers arrested 100 illegal foreign nationals in the factories.
These comprised 73 Lesotho nationals, 18 Eswatinians, two Malawians, a Zimbabwean, and a Mozambican. Five Chinese nationals working as employers were also detained.
According to Nxesi, R148 million was claimed through the enforcement notices that were served.
Nxesi said that the area’s textile and clothing factories had a reputation for hiring illegal foreign workers and subjecting them to working conditions resembling ‘modern-day slavery’.
He further stated that the government would be forced to close some of these factories if they did not comply.
Nxesi’s visit is part of an oversight as a ‘champion’ of the Amajuba district, which also includes the local municipalities of Newcastle, Dannhauser, and eMalangeni.
Nxesi was chosen to oversee development as part of the District Development Model (DDM), a government programme aimed at bringing resources and services from all levels of government to people’s homes.
Other organizations involved in the Amajuba DDM campaign included the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund, the Amajuba district council, the Newcastle local municipality, and national departments of health, social development, and home affairs.
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