Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Sunday condemned employers who allegedly threatened and assaulted labour inspectors when they conducted inspections at their businesses.
This comes after three inspectors were attacked by employers in two separate incidents in Pretoria and the Northern Cape last week, the labour department said in a statement.
On Thursday, two inspectors and a farm worker were allegedly shot at after attempts to negotiate over an unresolved dispute with a Northern Cape farmer failed.
Inspectors JP Monnapula and MT Tyuthuza, and Piet Mduzana, the farmworker, were shot at after their vehicle was forced to halt as they were exiting the farm.
The department said the men were also allegedly subjected to racist abuse, being called ”kaffirs” among other things.
The inspectors had gone to the farm to check whether the farmer complied with the Unemployment Insurance Act, as his payments to the Fund appeared to be in arrears. The men have laid charges of attempted murder.
Departmental spokesperson Snuki Zikalala said the attack on inspectors was the second one to occur this month.
Yolisa Ntshanga, an inspector based in Pretoria, was allegedly called a ”kaffir” and manhandled while inspecting Birdies Coffee Restaurant at the Atterbury Value Mart, he said. In this instance an assault docket was opened.
”These employers are not above the law and they will not succeed under this current political dispensation, which advocates democratic principles and non-racialism,” Mdladlana said. – Sapa