A group of 54 Indian jewellers will be deported after a year-long stay during which they were unpaid and often unfed.
They are the last of a group of 110 left penniless for almost a year after being recruited from their home country with promises of jobs as jewellery manufacturers and designers for a state-funded gold beneficiation project.
They greeted immigration officials with applause and relief when told this week that they would be deported. They will leave Virginia, Free State, in two groups. The first group of 29 will leave on Sunday and the remaining 25 on Tuesday, ending 12 months of penury and broken promises.
The men told of their plight this week, but asked not to be named for fear of being victimised. ”We left everything in India to impart skills and now we leave with nothing.”
They were brought to South Africa between October last year and February to work at the Oro-Maska jewellery manufacturing plant in Virginia, but the plant never went into production.
Oro-Maska is controlled by G5 International, a gold retail company based in London with a 51% stake in the company. The other half is held by South African entities: Harmony Gold, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Free State Development Corporation (FDC).
The men had been promised salaries of R5 000 a month, but earned no more than R650 between October and February. The money was paid in random, infrequent stipends. They were housed in a compound in Virginia.
From February to May, when the factory went operational to test the machinery, they were paid on average R1 000 a month.
In May the factory ground to a halt and all payments ceased. They were provided with food only.
In August a group of 34 disillusioned and homesick workers decided to pack up and leave. Their return flights were paid for by board members of Oro-Maska, owners of the plant.
Soon after that the factory was shut down. It now stands as a well-guarded white elephant surrounded by electric fences. A lone security guard attends the gate with strict instructions to deny any form of access.
By September 11 only 69 of the Indian jewellers remained. The men were arrested to be deported and dispatched to police stations around Virginia. They were saved by the intervention of Krishnan Waran, chairperson of Oro-Maska, who told the home affairs officials that the factory would be operational by the end of September.
Eight men were deported for being in possession of invalid documents.
The remaining men’s food was cut last week and they have been surviving on the little foreign currency they had, which they pooled to buy food.
They now want to claim the R1,8-million in back salaries for the 64 who remained after the factory closed.
The FDC invested R15-million to establish the factory. The IDC then put in R4,5-million. Harmony leased the premises in Virginia.
G5 was to have operational control and would provide the labour and working capital.
Harmony was to provide the gold they processed through a $4,5-million revolving loan facility from British Aerospace (BAe), one of the major beneficiaries of the arms deal. The facility was to be part of BAe’s offset programme set up as part of the government’s R67-billion arms deal.
The project was part of a move to create jobs by processing gold locally.
Two of the South African investors disagreed on the cause of the project’s failure and how it might go ahead, if at all.
Max Makhubalo, MD of the FDC, attributed the failure to what he calls ”unfortunate coincidence” and distanced his organisation from the treatment meted out to the foreign workers.
He confirmed that he paid for the group of 34 shipped out in August. He has been repaid by the Bhagwanji brothers, the central figures in G5.
”The plan was to bring out 120 skilled artisans to provide skills transfer to locals,” he said.
They were to be recruited and paid by G5 International and would start work in November.
He said the factory operated only for a brief trial period.
A major hiccough occurred when BAe cancelled its loan facility. Makhubalo said Pravin Bhagwanji, one of G5’s principals, undertook to pay the men from India.
G5 could not be reached for comment at its South African and London numbers.
Keith Bates of BAe said he was bound by confidentiality agreements and could not comment.
Ferdi Dippenaar, marketing director of Harmony, denied that the dispute with G5 affected Oro-Maska.
Makhubalo expressed confidence in the project and said he was willing to work with the Bhagwanji brothers, but Dippenaar had misgivings. He blamed the debacle on the major shareholder, which had been ”unable to complete its commitment to the project”.
”We have to be selective how we choose partners. The project, in its current form, will not go ahead.”
Muvhango Netshitangani, departmental head of entrepreneurial mining at IDC, said the corporation did not discuss client information in public.