An empowerment deal by electronics company Reunert that will see R465-million in shares allocated to four individuals has been labelled ”uncontrollable greed and gluttony” by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).
The union is also threatening protest action by its members against the company and its subsidiary.
According to media reports, Reunert has transferred 2,8% of its shares to four businesswomen — Cheryl Carolus, Wendy Lucas-Bull, Dolly Mokgatle and Thandi Orleyn, all shareholders of empowerment investment company Peotona.
While the four must still pay for the shares over 11 years using Reunert dividends, Carolus’s shares will be worth R135-million at current value, while Mokgatle and Orleyn each stand to get shares now worth R130-million. Lucas-Bull stands to get shares now worth R70-million.
In a statement on Wednesday, Numsa said it is strongly opposed to big business’ attitude towards developing black economic empowerment policies without interacting formally with labour.
”It’s uncontrollable greed and gluttony on the part of big capital because they fear that the country’s resources are not enough to provide a better life for all.
”We want to see disempowered workers and members getting a fair share in this particular transaction rather than distributing them to the filthy rich four businesswomen,” the union said.
The share deal is a worrying development because the workers who have contributed so much to the prosperity of Reunert stand to gain nothing in the ”gratuitous” transfer of shares to the selected few.
”Numsa is strongly calling on Reunert’s chief executive, Boel Pretorius, to intervene and reverse the transaction before we mobilise our members in the company and its subsidiary CBI to publicly protest and demand that a workers’ trust should be established to ensure that workers were entitled to gain from profit-sharing schemes of their companies,” the union said. — Sapa