NUMSA president Andrew Chirwa said ArcelorMittal is slowly becoming a burial site for workers.
This after Thami Molefe, Lesenyeho Mofokeng and Mpho Madumisa died last week after a building collapsed on them after an explosion.
Chirwa was speaking outside the company’s offices in Vanderbijlpark, Vaal, where they had gathered as part of Saftu’s stay away national strike.
“This plant now resembles an apartheid workplace, where racism is the order of the day. There is no value for the life of a black worker. African labour is not valued in this company. The life of a black worker is very cheap in this country and this company confirmed that and also that profit comes before lives,” he said.
“What makes this matter more painful is that workers were turned into emergency services.”
In their memorandum, Numsa said the deaths of their comrades would not be in vain. They said ArcelorMittal CEO Kobus Verster should be criminally and personally held liable for the members’ deaths.
“We demand that the Department of Employment and Labour make a report on this incident public within 14 days and it must litigate on behalf of the families if necessary,” read their memorandum. The memorandum was received by human resource manager Sedick Ahmed and employee relations manager, Mokhele Morabe, who said they’d take it to the executive team.
