Workers at SA’s largest cheese factory say they will embark on protest action if Clover sticks to its plans to move its Lichtenburg factory from North West to KwaZulu-Natal.
The company has cited poor service delivery by the municipality as the main reason for relocating from the province.
The General Industrial Workers Union of SA (Giwusa), which represents more than half the 226 workforce at the factory, met Clover’s management in Rustenburg on Monday to raise concerns over possible job losses related to the relocation process.
“The management told us that they are relocating the factory because they are consolidating their operations across the country. They said their factory in Parow, Cape Town, will be relocated to Port Elizabeth. They said some operations in Gauteng will be integrated,” Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei said on Tuesday.
Giwusa is affiliated to the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu).
Sebei said Clover has offered to help workers to relocate to Queensburgh in Durban, “but a lot of workers won’t be able to take up that offer”. Even if they did, their monthly wages of about R6,500 would not be enough because “it is more expensive to live in Durban than in Rustenburg”.
“Look, most factory workers there live at their homes in villages where they don’t pay rent, workers will be the biggest losers in this whole relocation process.”
Sebei said workers will now “occupy” the cheese factory in an effort to dissuade the company from going ahead with the relocation plans. Sebei said the factory’s last month of operation is October 2022.
“We are mobilising our members and communities around this campaign,” he said, stressing that “more elaborate plans” will be announced in due course. “We will occupy that factory and call on government to assist those workers by taking over the factory and continue with production.”
When contacted for comment, Clover referred Business Day to a media statement issued earlier in June, stressing that it is “not providing any further comments”.
“Ongoing poor service delivery is the main reason for Clover’s decision to move its cheese production from Lichtenburg to Queensburgh, Durban. Clover already has operations in Queensburgh and the eThekwini municipality has proven to be supportive,” the company said in the statement.
“For years, the Lichtenburg factory has been experiencing water and power outages and the surrounding infrastructure has not been maintained by the municipality. Despite numerous efforts to engage the municipality on these matters, the issues have not been resolved. This has negatively impacted production which requires a continuous process and it is no longer feasible for the business to operate in Lichtenburg.”
Many municipalities, which are at the coalface of service delivery in the country, have been marred by allegations of corruption, maladministration, mismanagement and inefficiency.
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