Sarah Duguid
A housing compound for workers at the Sangiro chicken factory lies tucked away behind a rabble of weeds and barbed-wire fencing near Hartbeespoort Dam, an area declared by Unesco to be a world heritage site: the Cradle of Humankind.
A pile of rubbish sprawls across the path at the entrance to the compound, the stench from a blocked toilet hangs thick in the air and open pipes run chicken waste from the slaughterhouse past the workers’ rooms and into a river.
This is home to about 100 of the 284 workers employed by Sangiro, a subsidiary of Premier Foods, which produces chicken products destined for the shelves of supermarkets.
An executive formerly employed by Sangiro, who does not wish to be named, told the Mail & Guardian that “the facilities are dismal, pathetic. No one knows where the sewage runs to and the system is probably blocked. There is no electricity and no hot water. Workers are coming into work in a fresh-food plant with unclean bodies and hair.”
The compound has only one shower. It has no door, no lights and the smell inside is fetid.
The former executive said that last year a programme was instituted to clean and maintain the compounds. The residents were to be charged rent so that a full-time team could be employed to keep the place up to standard. But before the programme could be put in place managers were told to leave the situation as it was.
Plant manager Theo Vanstraprijp denied that managers had vetoed the clean-up. He said the workers were told to clean the compound themselves which they would not agree to do. He said it was the workers’ “lack of commitment” that led to the programme being halted.
Vanstraprijp said someone from the factory is sent every day to clean the toilets and he could not give a reason why they were filthy and blocked.
Workers told the M&G that there are high levels of respiratory infection at the compound. One child spent 18 months in hospital after contracting tuberculosis while living there. Some workers have complained of developing asthma.
Dr Malcolm deBube, director of veterinary services for Gauteng, said: “There is no doubt that poor facilities for workers affect hygiene. We demand health checks on workers.”
The department also wants an on-site nurse in larger plants to ensure that those workers with contagious diseases are not handling fresh food.
When asked about health facilities for the workers at Sangiro, Andre Kruger, the general manager, replied: “There is a vet on site.”
He admitted that he had not been to look at the compound and was unaware of its state. “There is a housing committee and a full union and not one instance [of broken facilities] has been reported to me.”
The former Sangiro executive said that even if the toilets became blocked and the shower failed, workers would never report it. Only when the workers descended on the factory to wash would management become aware that there were problems with the facilities at the compound. But the workers said they did report problems and they were ignored.
It is an “attitude of hygiene”, said DeBube, that goes a long way to ensuring that factories are safe. The risk, he said, is that if the workers do not have adequate facilities to wash their hands, worms and salmonella could be given a breeding ground. Both workers and employers need to be vigilant about cleanliness and good health in order for the factory to be deemed hygienic.
“I think [the issue of housing] needs deep discussion. We need to sit down as a group and talk,” said the director of retail at a major supermarket chain, one of Sangiro’s customers, whom the M&G approached for comment.
However, he said, the food products the chain receives from its suppliers are laboratory tested and contaminated food would be quickly detected.
The Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs does not get involved in housing; its brief specifically states it must look only at factories and not get embroiled in issues beyond the factory door, said DeBube. And, without the will from companies to spend money on housing and to instil an attitude of hygiene in their workers, he said, the prospect of change seems bleak.
Sangiro is a case in point. The company does not appear to favour the added complications and expense of providing housing. Dr Louis Theron, a management consultant retained by Sangiro, says the responsibility of housing should lie firmly with the individual. They should have their own homes and be responsible for them.
At Sangiro, workers and managers remain at loggerheads. Workers want their living conditions to improve, and Sangiro says even if it spends the money, the housing will return to its original state.