Members of trade federation Solidarity took to the streets of Sandton on Thursday to protest against their exclusion from Sasol’s new employee share ownership scheme, Khanyisa.
More than 2,000 union members wore bright orange Solidarity branded t-shirts and caps and marched from a nearby park to the JSE and then to the Sasol headquarters, where leaders delivered memorandums.
They chanted “genoeg is genoeg” (enough is enough) and “sies Sasol” as they neared the respective buildings, and were greeted with the odd hoot from passing vehicles and puzzled stares from onlookers.
Solidarity said the exclusion of their white members from the Khanyisa scheme, launched on June 1, is out of step with international conventions to fight discrimination, the spirit of the Mining Charter, and the core values of the constitution. It also claims it violates certain provisions of the Employment Equity Act.
Sasol has maintained that Khanyisa is not part of Sasol’s employee remuneration or benefit structures, but was designed to benefit previously disadvantaged groups, and to bump the company’s black ownership up to 25%.
The march came after Solidarity embarked on three weeks of industrial action in September and after a process at the commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration came to a close, without resolution, on October 3.
The federation, in its memorandum delivered to Sasol, threatened litigation if the company did not meet its demands to include or otherwise compensate white workers excluded from the scheme. It also called on the JSE to stop enabling Sasol and others with ‘‘racially exclusive schemes’’ listed on the exchange’s empowerment segment.
Manesh Jeram, a Sasol employee who is part of the scheme, said he joined Thursday’s march in support of his colleagues.
“I’m here in the name of fairness. I stood for it in ’94 with the ANC, and that’s why we are here today. I’m standing up for equal rights for everyone,” Jeram said.
Michael de Waal said he was not marching for the shares, but rather against the way Sasol had managed the transition to a new employee share scheme without providing adequate explanation to those excluded.
De Waal said he was protesting mainly for future generations of white South Africans.
“It’s companies just doing what the government wants. Where must we go as whites, where will we go eventually? We are thinking about our children, what is the future for our kids in South Africa?’’
The previous employee share scheme, Sasol Inzalo, had included all employees, regardless of race, below managerial level, and ended in May this year when it was replaced by Sasol Khanyisa.
Khanyisa is a R21bn empowerment scheme which, Sasol said, intends to create meaningful financial benefits for approximately 230,000 black shareholders and qualifying employees.
Phase one of the Khanyisa programme included all permanent Sasol employees who were participants of Sasol Inzalo and were still employed, making them eligible for Sasol ordinary shares worth R100,000, or Sasol BEE ordinary shares, which will vest in 2021.
Solidarity members take issue with the second phase of Khanyisa in which each qualifying black employee will have “rights to shares” (held in trust) worth about R500,000, and funded through a loan from Sasol.
“Khanyisa represents a significant step Sasol is taking to bring about a more inclusive economy by affording an opportunity specifically to previously disadvantaged groups, as defined by the department of trade & industry’s B-BBEE codes,” Sasol said in a statement.
It commended Solidarity and its members for demonstrating in a safe and peaceful manner and said it would study the memorandum and respond as appropriate.
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