Cape Town - The Langeberg Labour Broker’s Forum in Robertson has hit back at critics, including the municipality’s mayor Schalk van Eeden for seemingly blaming labour brokers for the recent violent altercations between foreign nationals.
The forum distanced itself from the incident saying it was unhappy about the statement released by the mayor’s office insinuating that labour brokers kindled the flames that led to violent clash between Lesotho and Zimbabwean nationals in Nkqubela on Friday.
The forum’s secretary Welile Hohlo said: “We want to dispute that the forum was the cause of the fight between foreign nationals in Robertson. We were not the reason why that situation boiled over, and it’s disappointing that the mayor has deemed it fit to say we were.
“The main issue is that most of the farmers here favoured Zimbabwean nationals over others. According to them, Zimbabwean nationals are more hard working than locals. We believe that the mayor tried to shield the farmers by using the forum as a scapegoat.”
Hohlo said as much as the forum supports the idea that South Africans should take preference in employment in any industry and not just the agricultural sector, it also wanted to distance itself from the violence that took place in the rural municipality.
“We can’t have a situation where some of our members are blamed as instigators and singled out. Another thing to note is that before the meeting held on March 20, we had tried to engage the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and Employment and Labour (DEL) about the situation here.
“We asked them to come and assess the situation here and respond accordingly but they never did.
“That’s not the only time we have tried to warn all role-players about the tensions here, we have hosted meetings with the municipality and farmers to engage them on this, but nothing was done that could have avoided this,” Hohlo said.
Langeberg Mayor Schalk van Eeden said he was aware of the statements made by the forum but would leave the allegations to be investigated by the DEL.
“The situation in Nkqubela is currently under control, and calm, and police have confirmed that no further incidents have been reported.
We are facilitating discussions with the various role players to address the situation.”
Meanwhile, inspectors from the DEL in collaboration with the DHA and police are in the coming weeks set to conduct inspections on all farms in Robertson to determine whether employers are adhering to labour legislation, and following proper procedures when facilitating recruitment at their workplaces.