PRESS RELEASE
21 NOVEMBER 2011
SACTWU OFFICES IN NEWCASTLE BURNT DOWN
The offices of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) in Newcastle were gutted by fire last week on Monday 14 November 2011. The destruction of our premises comes in the wake of moves by the union to highlight atrocious labour and human rights' abuses occurring in clothing factories in this KwaZulu-Natal town. It also follows efforts by SACTWU, the clothing bargaining council, the Department of Labour and the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that Newcastle clothing companies comply with South African labour laws and industry agreements.
We have previously indicated our knowledge of threats against the safety of some of our officials in reprisal for raids conducted at some Newcastle clothing companies in late September 2011. We therefore urge the Newcastle authorities to investigate the possibility of arson. We also categorically state that SACTWU shall not be deterred from our fight for decent work for clothing workers in Newcastle.
Issued by Andre Kriel, SACTWU General Secretary.
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6 comments:
The fire started in a distance from SACTWU's office and ended up gutting down the whole building with many other business within it, including Chinese shops. One of the shop owners lost his uninsured goods valued more than R500,000. It was lucky that nobody was seriously injured in this accident but the losses to the business are very unfortunate.
The Newcastle Chinese Chamber expressed its sympathy to the victims from this fire disaster and will provide assistance to our members to rebuild their businesses.
Alex,very interesting. So union manipulates the truth to make readers think it is connected to you or the Chinese clothing owners in Newcastle. How can anyone believe what they say ...
Anonymous #1, why would the union stoop so low & mislead the public like this, it is not in their nature.
the fact that the building is used for both residential & business purposes. I do hope the authorities & insurance do a thorough investigation free of the bias which the union is alluding to.
The fact that the firefighting equipment was not up to scratch - as per media reports - for this fire & a previous one a short while before - does not say much for the municipality emergency fire services either, which in itself smacks of something.
sinister.
In the context of threats to the safety of some of SACTWU's officials, the burning down of the building in which our offices are located is very suspicious.
Newcastle workers from many factories have reported to us that their employers have often been seen to pay off some State authorities. Official records of problems are sometimes conveniently 'lost' or changed as a result.
Simon reporting about state corruption is a punishable offense soon, lets hope you have facts that can bring these individuals to book or are we going to point fingers and not act
what I find rather interesting is that the union is so hell bent on shutting down the factories in Newcastle that to date nothing has transpired. So much energy spent on sabre rattling - no examples have been made to show how serious the union is in this matter
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