President Cyril Ramaphosa has had to retrench over 20
workers in one of his farms due to foot-and-mouth disease and bad trading
conditions.
Ramaphosa drove to his Ntabanyoni farm in Badplaas,
Mpumalanga, himself last month to deliver the bad news to the workers. He told
them that 22 out of 46 full-time employees at the farm were to lose their jobs.
The news, which Ramaphosa delivered on the morning of
October 25, left many of the workers devastated. Some of them are now appealing
on the president "to find ways" to help them feed their families.
The job losses came at a time when Ramaphosa is on a drive
to attract investment and create jobs for millions of unemployed South
Africans. Reducing unemployment has become one of the key priorities of his
administration.
But for Aaron Mokoena and many of his retrenched
colleagues, unemployment is now a reality.
Mokoena told Sowetan that the move came as a shock to them
and things were going to be harder going into the festive season.
"This is the worst Christmas ever where one will have
to live as an unemployed person.
"You know the President came himself, he told us all
that we are going to be retrenched and that was a shock as names were called.
For me it's hard because there are 11 people who depend on me, it was very hard
to go home and tell my family that I'm jobless," said Mokoena.
"I so wish he can reverse that decision. We understand
the business is not making money but what about our families? "Maybe we
can work on contract just to buy food..."
In Ntabanyoni, Ramaphosa farms a rare breed of cattle known
as Ankole. He first imported the breed from Uganda and is regarded as the
biggest Ankole farmer in the country.
Ntabanyoni's operations manager, Ben Molotsi, confirmed the
retrenchments.
He said they were mainly as a result of a foot-and-mouth
outbreak that caused major losses for the farm.
The farm, he added, had only two option: reduce the number
of staff or face liquidation.
"We know it's not nice to retrench people, but this
was a business decision... Actually the employees themselves wrote their names
and submitted that it's better we retrench because when the business is doing
good and back on track they will get first preference as former employees whom
we have invested a lot experience on them," Molotsi said.
Responding to complains from some of the retrenched
workers, Molotsi said no one was treated unfairly.
"We understand the President is involved but people
have responsibility to tell the truth. Yes the President came and spoke to them
in person, as he didn't want anyone in the management to speak to them. He let
them ask questions and they were settled and understood. We have done all
processes for retrenchment, they were alerted earlier, they got their 13th
Cheque and we have paid them retrenchment severance up to 18 days and they were
also paid their day offs too."
He said the company has also agreed to pay half of the
former employees' fees towards skills development courses.
"We also promised that if one needs to study, to maybe
start a business, the company will pay half of their skills development
courses," he added.
Another affected employee, Mhlonipheni Nkosi, said he
wished Ramaphosa could find ways to let them return to work.
"We understand the situation, but you know the
President is so big to fail. I wish he can find ways to give us back our jobs
because we are young and we need to feed our families," said Nkosi.
Presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko declined to comment,
referring enquiries to Molotsi. Sowetan
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