Protesting Cosatu members broke through a steel barrier and blocked off the main entrance of the Sun City resort to hand over a memorandum on Saturday.
About 1 000 protesters took to the streets on Saturday, to demand that Sun International terminate the contract of Falcon Security, after one of the firm’s employees had played a music CD with lyrics referring to former president Nelson Mandela as a ”kaffir” and former president Thabo Mbeki as a ”baboon”.
The barrier was put in place to prevent the protesters from reaching the hotel’s main gate.
”We are not going to hand over the memorandum here, we want to hand it over there at the main gate,” said North West provincial secretary Solly Phetoe before the protesters broke the barrier. The
marchers also demonstrated against alleged unfair and racist working conditions at the international resort.
”There is racism in this institution. The worst they did was to insult our international leader, our father Nelson Mandela,” Phetoe said.
”With Nelson Mandela, we are not going to compromise,” he said.
”If they do not agree [to our demands], we will protest at their concert and the million dollar golf tournament.”
The public order policing unit managed to keep the crowd under control.
Phetoe said racism was rife at Sun City. He said African workers were subjected to polygraph tests while their white counterparts were not.
The marchers also demanded the immediate dismissal of a white supervisor who allegedly told two workers that they smelled like baboons.
”She allegedly told them that they should bath, and if they could not afford deodorant, she would gladly buy it for them,” Madito Morobalwa, branch secretary of Cosatu’s Moses Kotane branch said.
In the memorandum, Cosatu alleged that one worker, Debra Danke, was locked in a room with snakes after she was accused of stealing money from a hotel room, even after she was cleared by a polygraph test.
The federation alleged black employees were dismissed for petty issues, while whites escaped with warnings in serious cases and that a white employee received a warning, after allegedly taking goods worth R2-million from the resort.
Kurt Peter, divisional manager at the resort, who received the memorandum on behalf of Sun City and Sun International, said they rejected any form of racism.
”We are waiting timeously to eradicate racism and we challenge Cosatu to work with us to uproot racism,” he said.
He explained that comprehensive investigations were being conducted into the alleged insult on Mandela.
He said a manager at Falcon Security had been fired in connection with the incident and another was on suspension.
Cosatu threatened to lobby Fifa not to use Sun International facilities during the Soccer World Cup.
”We will request the international world not to do business with Sun International if they don’t stop racism,” said Phetoe.
Cosatu in the Western Cape had also threatened to launch a campaign against Sun International hotels in the province, namely Grand West
Casino and Table Bay Hotel.
North West Cosatu said if their were grievances were not responded to by Monday they would mobilise internationally for sanctions against Sun International. – Sapa