Civic organisation Operation Dudula has given some factories in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg, 14 days to hire locals.
The movement alleges the majority of industries in the area hire undocumented foreign nationals, overlooking deserving South Africans.
With the soaring unemployment rate, these Sowetans say they are tired of languishing in poverty while job opportunities are just a stone’s throw away.
“Industrial areas which are mostly hiring foreign people when we are simply saying if you are coming to the township, you must endorse people from Zola, from Soweto and from Meadowlands. You cannot have industrial areas operating in Soweto but it is run by illegal immigrants or they are hiring foreigners. We are looking for companies to hire out South Africans. If it’s a foreigner then let it be a skill that is very much scarce in South Africa.”
Hundreds gathered in Diepkloof on Wednesday with hopes to knock on each factory’s doors and demand employment. But, that was not the case. Most were closed and inaccessible. However, they made their stop at a packaging company, which they allege staff comprises 70% of undocumented migrants.
Related video, Operation Dudula gives factories in Rosslyn 14 working days to respond to memorandum of demands:
Operation Dudulas National Deputy Chairperson Dan Radebe says this is not their first visit to the company. And, they’ve come back after being failed by the Labour Department.
“The department of Labour is not coming to the party for inspections. We’ve always stressed that the department of labour is failing South Africans because there is no way companies can employ these people for this long whilst we’ve got the department of labour in the country.”
Radebe says they’ll take the matter into their own hands if the company fails to accede to their demands within 14 days.
“We will decide, if they are not cooperating, people will come and just sit at the gate and shit down the company until they listen. There will now be operations but obviously, we’ll give them a certain day to respond. If they don’t respond properly, then they must not be surprised when they come and shut down the company.”
