A crackdown by officials at farms in the Robertson area has uncovered a slew of non-compliance with South Africa’s labour laws.
The crackdown follows violent clashes last month between groups of foreign workers over job opportunities.
A Department of Employment and Labour probe has found that 60% of the farm workers employed on farms in the Robertson area are foreigners, some of whom got their jobs using fake IDs.
A department official, police and officials from the Department of Home Affairs visited the area just weeks after the clashes involving Lesotho and Zimbabwean farm workers.
At the time, labourers from Lesotho alleged that employers prioritised job opportunities for Zimbabweans. Labour brokers previously told Weekend Argus that farmers preferred to use Zimbabweans because they had a better work ethic.
“What we have seen is that the ratio of foreigners versus South Africans is 60% in favour of foreigners,” said the department’s chief inspector, David Esau.
“Farmers are saying that they are not in charge of employment practices. This means that the responsibility falls on the labour brokers, and we found that many times these labour brokers are foreign nationals themselves.
“This is something that needs to be investigated because you need to be registered with the Department of Labour to employ people.”
Discontent has been growing in parts of the country over the number of foreign workers employed in different sectors, while South Africans are supposedly overlooked. Operation Dudula took off in Soweto and led to clashes between locals and foreigner. The group plans to launch in Cape Town next month, according to a poster on social media.
Esau said their investigation in Robertson also revealed there were farms not complying with the national minimum wage and other basic employment practices.
“We found workers will work a 12-hour shift and not get paid extra, or given time off. This often happens because they don’t know the law or are desperate for work.
“We are collecting documents to find out whether the employer is compliant or not in terms of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
“So far we’ve been issuing fines to labour brokers who break immigration policies,” he said.
A source close to the investigation told Weekend Argus there were also instances where labour brokers were providing fake identification documents and work permits.
The source said people would pay R5 000 for an ID or work permit.
“The fake documents uses the ID number of a South African with the foreign national’s picture."
The source said there were about 30 people involved in producing fake IDs in the Robertson area alone.
“They spread out as far as Hermanus, Ceres, Bredasdorp and Citrusdal, because this is where these workers flee to when they hear of investigations.
“That’s what also makes the authorities’ job harder, because they [labour brokers] have a system like relocating workers, moving from farm to farm, making them untraceable.”
Police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut said five men were nabbed on Tuesday and charged with contravention of the Immigration Act.
Last week, Gauteng police also arrested a 47-year-old man who was caught illegally making documents from South African IDs, driver’s licences and travel documents in his flat.
A labour broker who has been under investigation three times since the unrest, told Weekend Argus that they also wanted to know who was supplying foreign nationals with the fake documents.
“All we do is get the workers; they either provide us with their asylum seeker document, a work permit or a South African ID. We employ them (and) don’t ask questions.
“Some of us also don’t apply for UIF because we are too afraid that these documents are fake and we’ll be slapped on the wrist again. I tried to find out who supplied them. I know of someone who paid R13 000 for a South African ID.”
The broker added that many of the workers travelled from farm to farm to avoid being questioned.
“Tomorrow they are someone else, somewhere else. But it doesn’t take away the fact that they doing it to work and to stay in the job.”
UIF national spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi said they encouraged employers to hire foreigners with work permits, as that ensured compliance with the country’s laws.