The police are to shut down a Cape Town employment agency following a visit on Friday by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, his department said.
Spokesperson Snuki Zikalala said Excellence Domestic Employment in Athlone had been operating illegally for the past five years, having failed to register with the department as required by law.
Excellence would also be issued with a contravention notice for housing 25 employees in a garage that had inadequate ventilation and poor ablution facilities.
”They had girls and boys sleeping in the same room. Two boys were sleeping in the same room with 23 girls,” he said.
”There was also no ventilation and only one bath. This is a contravention [of labour laws].”
The youngest girl was 17. The two males were aged 21.
Zikalala said the young people — mostly from the Northern Cape, Somerset West and the Eastern Cape — claimed they were being kept against their will.
”These kids all come from rural areas. The employer pays for them to come here. For the first month they don’t earn any money because the employer takes that for his fee for transporting them here.”
He said some of the youths had arrived in January after being promised jobs, but they had not been given a job and were not allowed to leave.
Zikalala said the police were trying to find alternative accommodation for the youngsters before shutting the business down.
”They come from far away, so if the place is just shut down they will be on the streets. That is the concern. So police are first looking for alternative accommodation or transport to get them back home.”
Mdladlana said the department ”cannot ignore nor tolerate an employment agency operating in this way”. — Sapa