EFF pickets outside Siemens in Midrand over 'unfair labour practices'

The EFF on  Thursday warned it would shut down Siemens' offices in Midrand if the company's CEO did not meet them next week to discuss what it claimed were unfair labour practices.  

The red berets descended on the premises, demanding that talks be held about allegations that the company was  not paying black workers the same salaries as their  white counterparts.

The party alleged white trainees were given the opportunity to be trained overseas and were subsequently permanently hired while black trainees were not afforded the same opportunity. 

Phillip Makwala, EFF deputy chair in the province, led the protest. 

Supporters had arrived in 11 taxis, mostly dressed in red party regalia.  A heavy presence of police and private security companies addressed a group of around 100 party supporters who were picketing outside the head office for almost three hours, chanting and singing.  

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“We are not going to hand over the memorandum today. We will come back to a round-table meeting. If that fades, we will come back to a shutdown and make sure that ... Siemens (operations) come to a halt,” he said.  

The song, Sizonda amamenemene (we hate traitors) echoed in the air outside.

The EFF claimed that it had in December 2022 submitted a memorandum of demands but these were not attended to.

“We have decided that we are not going to submit our memorandum to the two executives who are inside their offices. These two comrades are directly involved in the issues we are complaining about.”

“We need a meeting with the CEO but we are told that he is in Germany so we will wait until March 27 and have a round-table meeting,” he said.  

Makwala said the management was problematic, lacks the capacity to handle their problems and could not deal with their issues.

“Our issues involve racism — the CEO is white, the CFO is white, everyone at the top management is white and we can't sit and watch helplessly when racism is playing in our own faces,” he said. 

Makwala told supporters before they dispersed that the party had already sent Siemens three emails requesting a meeting. 

TimesLIVE has reached out to Siemens on the allegations. The company had not replied at the time of publishing.

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