DATE : 19 April 2005
Johannesburg NUMSA PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NUMSA CONDEMNS DEATH OF TWO WORKERS AT TCE ENGINEERING COMPANY.
Yesterday, the National Union Of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) uncompromisingly condemned the shooting of 15 workers by the director of the TCE Engineering plant in Benoni. As a results of the shooting two workers died instantly and another one was rushed to hospital. The director shot himself and died on the spot. The shooting incident emanates from non-payment of worker’s weekly salaries. Last week on Friday the director only paid the workers R100 as opposed to R650 a week. When they demanded the outstanding payments , he told them to wait in a queue outside the company gates and after few minutes he came back and started shooting. The company has been skipping payments recently, and workes were threatened with company closure whenever they demanded payment of salaries. The names of the dead workers cannot be disclosed until their next of kin were informed. The company has been closed and all 13 workers will make statements tomorrow at Benoni police station.
It must be remembered that late last year the same director set dogs on workers. Workers were constantly intimidated by ten dogs in the vicinity of the working stations, canteens and office of the director. As a results one worker was rushed to hospital after he was bitten by two dogs. The dogs attack was carried out with the full knowledge of the director.
The incident is shocking and devastate the families of the workers. The union send deepest condolences to the families of workers and condemns the incident. It is not difficult to conclude that the whole shooting was inspired by hate,prejudice and racist conduct of the employer. It is unfortunate that the employer wanted a subservient workforce. It is outrageous to realize that we still have employers who treat workers in an inferior and iniquitous manner. We also suspect that the employer could not afford to pay the prescribed wage rates thus he took all his frustration on workers.
This is a clear case of a company that wants to silence workers rights by imposing racist practices. It is sad that in the process workers become victims of a racist employer. It was the duty of the employer to renumerate workers accordingly. It is a right of workers to demand unpayed salaries. It was not a favour from the employer to pay and thereferore workers cannot be treated as coerced employees. In this regard the company disregarded all the rights of workers for proper payment.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT DUMISA NTULI @ (011) 689 1700 or 0829737282