Superspreader concern at RES Corporation

MBABANE - Certain employees of RES Corporation have accused the company of subjecting them to COVID-19 super-spreader conditions allegedly during sugar cane carrying out operations.

The employees, who are organised under Swaziland Agricultural Plantations Workers Union (Simunye and Mhlume branches) have since taken Royal Eswatini Sugar (RES) Corporation to the Industrial Court.

They are seeking an order that the continuing sugar cane carrying out operations at RES Corporation, by allegedly undesignated employees from other departments, be stopped forthwith pending finalisation of this application.

The employees also want the company to be interdicted from using unlawful instructions to its employees through its line managers or supervisors to deploy undesignated employees to conduct the sugar cane carrying out operations in the fields without their consent.

They further want the company to be mandated to formally engage the affected employees

Workers harvesting sugar cane.

through its union representatives and shop stewards regarding the matter.

Chairperson of Swaziland Agricultural Plantations Worker Union Bhekinkhosi Makhathini of Lavumisa said the carrying out is normally conducted by employees from the harvesting and agriculturally production departments.

He said it was a task that required each labourer to physically uplift tonnes of sugar cane from inside the fields to the shores and involved rigorous physical activity and strength.

“In other words, the employees literally become walking forklifts that transport the sugar cane from the inaccessible areas in the fields to the shores for transportation to the sugar mill. It is a worst form of slavery one can ever imagine, all done in the name of preserving the sugar cane from decomposing in the fields before it is transported for processing to the sugar mill,” said Makhathini.

He explained that this operation was done when the forklift machinery were unable to pick the cane during the harvesting season when the fields were muddy and slippery due to heavy rains as currently experienced in the country.

This exercise, according to Makhathini, is normally carried out by general labourers from various departments under the agricultural production division and other departments from time to time.

“However, on December 6, 2021, the respondent has through its line managers and supervisors instructed employees from other departments, who normally do not form part of such an operation, to partake in this operation as a matter of urgency without any prior engagement and consent, whatsoever.

The employees include, but not limited to, water resources artisans, flood irrigators, cluster house attendants, pipe fitters and drip irrigators to mention a few,” added Makhathini.

The veracity of these allegations is still to be tested in court. The employees are represented by Happy-Boy Ngcamphalala of Ngcamphalala Thwala Attorneys.

Makhathini alleged that the employees from other departments, out of fear of the unknown, victimisation and expulsion agreed to the carrying out. He said many of them raised complaints through their shop stewards about the ‘degrading

and inhuman treatment’ that they are being subjected to by the employer.

The carrying out, according to Makhathini, allegedly put employees at risk of contracting COVID-19. He argued that this was because the carrying out of operations involved a large number of employees who converge to one point and work in close proximity. “This is because many do not wear face masks during the carrying out to maximise oxygen intake as this job requires intense physical exercise.

Needless to say, this poses a great danger and risk to the employees’ health and general well-being. Some sustain skin abrasions and cuts which later manifest themselves as blisters that run across the impact areas where the most physical activity was undertaken by the employee,” said Makhathini.

He alleged that the COVID-19 infection rate had dramatically increased within RES Corporation. He noted that this could not be single-handedly attributed to the carrying out operation that is currently underway, ‘but it sure is a super-spreader event that continually exposes our people to the pandemic’. He conceded that the carrying out exercise was important in saving costs and production targets on the part of the company. However, he said human life was equally important, if not higher in value.