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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns the owner of SA Steel Mills, Mr. Rafik Mohamed for his inhumane and cold-hearted reaction in the face of the death of a worker at the company. Yesterday around 9 am, a worker at SA Steel Mills was unfortunately crushed by one of the pressing machines. The workers’ name was Seamogelo Mkhondwane and he was only 26 years old. In the immediate aftermath of Seamogelo’s death, Rafik demanded that workers must resume their duties and go back to work. 

Our members refused to resume their duties because they were traumatized. Some of them knew Seamogelo and were understandably mourning his untimely death at the workplace and they withdrew their labour out of respect for him. Our members are also worried about their safety because the death of a worker in a workplace, means that health and safety protocols, were likely to have been violated. And in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, workers have the right not to work, if they feel unsafe. This is not the first time that injuries have taken place at SA Steel Mills and this is why our members were justified in refusing to continue working. However, Rafik insisted that if workers did not return to work immediately, he would take disciplinary action against them. Our members allege that he was planning to obtain scab labour to replace them and they continued to resist returning to work, because they were justified in doing so. 

We condemn Rafik because he demonstrated his hatred and racism towards workers. His views are similar to that of American slave owners on plantations who view workers as cattle or animals. He has no regard for their safety, and no regard for their feelings. He did not care that some of them were traumatized, and he has no respect for one of his own employees who died while working for him. 

Seamogelo was working so that he can rake in mega profits, and he died whilst doing so, and yet, Rafik showed no sympathy towards him, and displayed a very careless attitude towards him and those mourning him. Rafik’s behaviour was vile and we will not mince our words on this issue. What he did was utterly disgraceful. We have noted, that according to a leadership online publication called leader.co.za that Rafik was once a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneurship awards. If this is the same person that we are dealing with, then we have to wonder why such a person would get recognition for good leadership, when they have a complete disregard for human life.  

Eventually, the Regional Secretary of Sedibeng, comrade Kabelo Ramokathali compelled him to accept that workers were not going to return to work. Our members decided to resume their shifts today. 

We are not surprised at Rafik’s behaviour. We are dealing with a person who is currently underpaying workers and paying them less than the rate stipulated by the Metals and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) for the steel sector. The current MEIBC rate is over R40 per hour but he is only paying R25 per hour and he has been attempting to hide behind exemptions to get away from paying workers what they deserve. The kind of work that workers are exposed to is extremely dangerous, but Rafik is refusing to give workers medical aid! They also refuse to pay the leave enhancement benefit (also known as the 13th cheque), and there is no traveling allowance. Again, this is another example of the kind of inhumane, greedy capitalist who is running the entity.

Rafik Mohamed is leading a very racist organisation because when you look at the staff complement, because all the so-called blue collar workers, who are risking their lives to generate profits for him, are African whilst the office staff and management are almost entirely lily white. This includes all the sales staff, with a few Indian staff here and there. Therefore his attitude should not surprise anyone. 

NUMSA officially sent a letter on the 11th of April to the minster of Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL), Thulas Nxesi, as well as the DTIC minister Ebrahim Patel, and we copied the DG of DoEL Thobile Lamati, and the acting Deputy DG Thembinkosi Mkalipi. The same letter was also sent to the CEO of SEIFSA Lucio Trentini and the General Secretary of the MEIBC Sicelo Nduna alerting all of them to the dire situation at this company. 

We are calling once again on the DoEL to urgently investigate the violations of health and safety, and the exploitation of undocumented foreign nationals. We are disappointed because if they had taken our allegations more seriously, perhaps this death could have been prevented. We are imploring them to act with speed and intervene at SA Steel Mills because we cannot afford any more incidents. 

We have reported the fatality to the DoEL and this time we are demanding that they take drastic measures against SA Steel Mills. That place is like a prison for workers who are undocumented foreign nationals. They are kept in the plant. We demand that the DoEL must stop the plant from operating until such time that a proper inspection is done and proper safety standards are properly implemented. 

Our other demands are the following:

SA Steel Mill must allow workers to elect safety reps who can be trained in health and safety protocols by the union. The safety reps who are there are not empowered and have not been trained by NUMSA because the management has been resisting.

We demand a full-time health and safety shopsteward elected by workers, because part of the training they receive, will help in maintaining health and safety standards in the workplace. 

We demand that SA Steel mills must stop employing undocumented foreign nationals, which is a flagrant violation of the labour laws. Out of 1000 workers, only 200 are South African. These workers are grossly exploited. and some of them are victims of horrific accidents while on the job. We have pictures to back this up. (We have included them in the statement). 

NUMSA wishes to send its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Seamogelo Mkhondwane who, unfortunately, passed away so young. He is not a NUMSA member, however, we will do everything possible as a union to assist his family through this very difficult time. 

A meeting with the management of SA Steel Mills has been organized for Monday where we will deal with their attempts to apply for exemption, and also the issue of the poor health and safety record of the company. We demand that Rafik must change his attitude and accept that we are in a democratic South Africa. We will not tolerate an apartheid mentality in anyone and he must be prepared to accept that we expect, at the very least, that he treats workers as full human beings, and not, like animals.

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim