POLOKWANE – The co-director of Vee TV, a TV station that would have been established early this year, is being investigated by the department of labour, while people appointed by the TV station say they have reported the board of directors to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Several people spoke to Review on condition of anonymity. They said they were promised jobs by the station’s directors, Dr Happy Ramakhanya and Rhulani Nkuzana (not the former mayor of Louis Trichardt, who has the same name). They said the directors appointed people who had resigned from permanent jobs to join the station. A photo of the station’s board of directors was posted on the station’s Facebook page on April 28. A press release in May stated that the station would not launch on June 2 as the launch had been delayed.
On October 21 another person wrote on the TV station’s Facebook page that he was at their offices in Grobler Street and was told the station no longer existed.
Ramakhanya, who said he was the chairperson of the board, told Review that, “the people were never appointed and they had no contracts with the TV station”. However, some people said they had their job offers in writing.
Ramakhanya said there was no deadline and the station would start operating as soon as the finances were solved.” He added that they would definitely be operational by February 2015.
Ramakhanya said it was no use for the workers to take them to the CCMA as “there never was an established company”. Despite former employees’ claims that they had documentation to prove what they said, Ramakhanya denied there were any contracts, verbal or written, employing people. “There was only the intention to establish a company.”
One man, who now lives in the Western Cape, said he was offered the position of national marketing and advertising manager and received a written job offer.
He said the station also wanted to purchase his house and he had to move out within three weeks. Two months’ rental was paid and no more money was forthcoming after that, he said. “I was never paid again and the purchase was cancelled. We are suing them now,” he said.
Review is in possession of copies of the documentation mentioned by him.
Another former employee said she had lost her house and her son had to drop out of college as there was no money.
“My kids have suffered a lot. They really played us. They took a lot of my intellectual property. They treated us unfairly,” she said.
Yet another former employee was near to retirement age when he received a job offer to join the TV station. He said he was never paid and, after a few months, he left.
Review had no success in contacting Rhulani Nkuzana who, according to Ramakhanya, was the managing director. Two cell phone numbers purported to be his were supplied. One number did not exist anymore and the other number continued to ring unanswered. The department of labour did not wish to comment as the investigation had not been concluded. Someone close to the investigation did confirm that the investigation involved the contracts and alleged non-payment of employees.
