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indvuna
SITEKI – About 25 Mozambican nationals, who are cane cutters, say they are stranded at Ngomane Village after the management of the company they worked for allegedly delayed payment of their salaries for almost a month.
They worked for Simandvodza Investment, a company subcontracted to the Royal Eswatini Sugar (RES) Corporation. However, Simandvodza management disputed owing the cane cutters, bust insisted that all workers were paid by Saturday.
The aggrieved cane cutters have reported the matter of their alleged unpaid January salaries to the police.
One of the cane cutters said they decided to report the matter on Friday at the Ngomane Police Post.
The cane cutter said the company went on recess on January 7 as crushing stopped at the corporation’s two mills situated at
Mhlume and Simunye.
The cane cutters said some of their workmates were paid their salaries while they
had been at the Ngomane Village waiting to be paid for the past three weeks.
He shared that the management had avoided them to the point that they had since ran out of food.
The cane cutters’ daily rate is E136. The company Managing Director (MD), Simangele Dlamini, said they had since paid some of the employees.
The MD said the company would wind up payment of last month’s salaries to their employees. She acknowledged that they failed to pay salaries on time due to that the company was also paid late as it was subcontracted to RESC.
She further pointed out that some employees were paid in the past weekend, though further delays emanated as a result of financial institutions’ processes.
She acknowledged that police came on Saturday to calm a situation, after some of the employees complained that they had not been paid.
“According to my knowledge, we are done with the payment of salaries. They
even sang and danced after receiving their salaries on Saturday. I am not aware that there were some who were not paid. We have even paid salaries for February,” the director said.
Echoing her sentiments was the company’s Secretary, Nomphumelele Magongo, who said the company was done with the payment of January salaries.
“I will be closing doors of the cane cutters’ houses today and, according to my knowledge, no one is still in the village,” she said.
Another cane cutting company, D&S Investment has also confirmed payment of their staff for this month.
The Manager, Jabulani Magagula, said they paid their staff a fortnight ago.
“We paid them a fortnight ago. As I am speaking, they are all at their respective homes,” he said.
Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the police responded to the matter at the village.