Employees protest against unpaid salaries
EMPLOYEES from a cleaning company, working for the City on a tender, barricaded Jakes Gerwel Drive and Highlands Drive, near Siqalo informal settlement in Mitchells Plain, with burning tyres and rubble yesterday, over alleged unpaid salaries.
The 18 Bhebhetha Holdings employees claimed they were meant to be paid on April 30, however a week later, there had not been any communication from the employer. The employees clean and collect rubble in the Siqalo area.
Team leader Hazel Geduld said: “We were supposed to get paid on Friday, and then we told we would be paid on Monday, but that didn’t happen. We tried communicating, but their representative told us she was afraid to come here and promised us that we are going to be paid.
“We have now taken it upon ourselves to close the road to get their attention and engage us. This is not the first time our payments are delayed. In January, we received our salaries days after the pay day.
“They did engage with us at the time, and we understood they were experiencing some financial difficulties, but they cannot do it for the second time and not engage with us.”
Bhebhethaa Holdings area manager Nandi Yandi confirmed the employees were paid. She said there was a delay on the company’s side.
“We have shown them proof of the immediate payments we have made and they have agreed to stop the protest.
“The employees are constantly consulted when they are not paid on time, and only 18 of the 489 employees have decided to protest over this,” she said.