The Johannesburg High Court has provisionally granted a stay of execution in the application for liquidation of a listed alloy wheels manufacturer ATS Alloy Wheels.
And, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is ecstatic over the temporary reprieve for at least 500 metalworkers whose jobs were threatened by the application to finalize the winding up order yesterday.
Numsa’s legal team has successfully delayed the application until August 21, 2007, to ensure that opposing arguments for placing the company under judiciary administration were properly advanced.
The metalworkers’ union giant strongly believes the “despicable and immoral act” by the directors of a wholly-owned subsidiary of the German unit Tiwheels expose a tug of war between directors and shareholders of the company.
It is strange that financial reports and balance sheets released previously presented the performances of the company to be in a healthy state. The company did not owe taxes to the South African Receiver of Revenue.
ATS Light Alloy managing director Dror Sery has claimed that the company could no longer procure financial assistance from its mother company Tiwheel.
Numsa has continuously rejected with contempt it deserves claim by management that the company’s financial position has been exacerbated by last week’s labour industrial action. It also asserted on the other hand that a major explosion caused in its Babelegi-based furnaces and damaged equipment. If it was the case insurance policies for the company would have come into assistance and relieved the company of its pain.
When companies experience cash flow difficulties and are overly indebted to their creditors, rescue missions by non-governmental organizations which ensured productivity and continuity of the company with the help of labour unions and management often kept most companies out of danger. The same could have been tried to save the company.
Numsa also accept as totally untrue claims that the company does not have sufficient funds to meet its day-to-day obligations or acquire additional stock required to conduct its business.
The company never consulted labour with the intention of seeking corrective advice from these institutions. Why did the board not foresee the difficulties and adopt remedial measures
We will continue to be suspicious about the winding up application and that something a bit fishy about intentions to dispose the company of its workforce and some assets before its operations were delivered to another faction.
For further information contact:
Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national spokesperson
Cell phone: 082 9407116
E-mail : mziwakheh@numsa.org.za