Over the last 48 hours, details have emerged of a Durban-based company whose employer had locked employees in the factory to manufacture face masks.

It is definitely not what our President Ramaphosa meant when he declared the 21-day COVID-19 lockdown on 23 March 2020.

The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) condemns this illegal and inhumane conduct by the employer.

We welcome his arrest, and call for the fast-tracking of the criminal case. If found guilty, he himself should be locked up and sentenced to rot in jail for a very long time.

Summary facts to date indicate the following:

1. The company is not a company which is registered in the clothing- or textile manufacturing industry.

It was manufacturing fragrance and now decided to switch to mask manufacturing, during the lockdown period.

2. The company is not unionized by SACTWU. This is not surprising, as we do not organise in the fragrance manufacturing industry.

3. There is no wage agreement (written or otherwise) between this company and SACTWU.

Dispite the above facts, it does not matter if those workers fall outside our registered scope of organising. For us, they are poor and desperate workers who now need help.

We shall discuss internally in our structures what assistance we can render to them.

We call on South Africans, especially business and government procurers, to be vigilant against fake manufacturers of COVID-19 masks and other essential products.

Over the last few weeks, our trade union has been quietly working with legimate manufacturers, to help to significantly ramp up mask manufacturing industrial capacity in our country.

We shall continue, without fanfare, to execute this important contribution by our trade union to help combat the spread of COVID-19 in our country, and globally. 

Issued by Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union