41 arrested during Joburg construction site blitz

Employers at a large construction site in Riversands, Midrand, were not aware of the number of undocumented foreigners working at the premises, employment and labour deputy minister Jomo Sibiya said on Wednesday.

Sibiya was speaking after 41 people were arrested during a multidisciplinary inspection at the Century Property construction site, which has been operating for at least six months and has 17 subcontractors.

He said employers told officials they did not know there were so many undocumented foreigners working at the site because subcontractors were responsible for bringing workers to the premises.

“Some subcontractors employed as many as 50 to 80 people,” Sibiya said, stressing the need for employers to verify the workers brought onto their sites.

He estimated that more than 300 undocumented foreigners could be working at the site.

Sibiya said the scale of the site had caught officials off guard, with too few police officers, labour inspectors and immigration officials available to conduct proper inspections.

“We found the site is too big for the officials we have here,” he said.

Some workers were seen running away from officials, with others climbing walls in an attempt to escape the inspection.

Sibiya said officials decided to withdraw and return after restrategising because they did not want to conduct a “half job”.

“It’s a technical manoeuvre we are taking,” he said.

The site manufactures storage facilities for businesses.

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero said the inspection was important because it exposed what was happening behind the walls of the construction site.

He called on developers to stop employing undocumented workers, saying this was taking away opportunities from South Africans looking for jobs.

“We want to send a clear message to developers that they must desist from employing people who are undocumented.”

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