Plumbing work done by one of the immigrants for Jambela Building Construction.
8 August 2012
Kate Jambela, the owner of Jambela Building Construction, is being accused of exploiting immigrants for the past four years and more recently of dismissing them without paying their accumulated wages.
This article has been updated. A note by the editor has been added to the end.
At one stage, the company had more than ten skilled employees, including builders, plumbers and electricians, all working without contracts and payslips. In addition, casual worker’s pay was unpredictable and then stopped completely.
An irate ex-employee recently seized the company’s two computers as “compensation” for his wages. This employee says that the two computers will not make up for the R18,000 the company owes him. “I worked for the company for four months. I did not have a documented agreement with them just like all other employees. She likes to exploit workers. That is why she does not give signed contracts and a high percentage of her employees are immigrants. On the day that I confiscated the computers, about eight employees were at the offices demanding their money and all of them were talking about big amounts such as R20,000 and R40,000. She had stopped opening the offices full day because she is running away from the people she owes. Sometimes they open very early and close before afternoon to avoid the public.”
One of the plumbers said that he continued to work without being paid because he hoped things would improve and could not leave since the company owed him a lot of money. He also said that at times they could not work for weeks because the construction company would run out of building and plumbing material such as cement, toilet seats and sinks. “I feel helpless and cannot report this case to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) because I do not have any written agreement with Jambela Construction Company. I was dedicated and loyal to my employer. All the sites where I have done plumbing passed the Department of Works inspection. Now I am jobless, penniless, and have skipped paying my child’s school fees for six months. Yesterday my landlord was furious, she almost threw me out of her house and is very angry that I have not been paying rent for several months and I am always giving her excuses.”
He said that despite working very hard for Jambela he cannot afford to buy groceries for his family or a pair of shoes for himself. He added that his cellphone account was suspended because it is in arrears. He said that besides owing him money, the company does not care about his welfare. He struggled in 2009 to get a letter from the company to apply for his work permit. He believes that the reason for this was that Jambela was concerned that SARS would pick up that her employees were not registered.
In her emailed response to these allegations, Kate Jambela said, “The business situation has been depressed since 2010, this is largely due to housing corruption in Gugulethu and New Rest. This compounded by non-payment from the various housing projects. Much remains for the Department to conclude, this filters right down to the labourers. I certainly do not relish in the position that the business faces, especially that of not paying people. Under strenuous conditions the business kept on going. I have all the facts and documentation to confirm that indeed this is the case.”
“In respect of one of the plumbers - the housing and municipal inspector did not pass his work, to remedy the situation other plumbers were called in to rectify the work - up to this very minute the payment for that work is withheld by the Department and he is aware of the facts. To offer some relief, a payment was made to him. Yes, they have taken the business computers making a sensitive situation far worse. It took time to prepare the paper work for the respective claims - hence the added delay. The amounts you quoted are not accurate, the balance due is R1800,” she explained.
When asked to confirm the amount, the plumber insisted that it was, in fact, R18,000.
In her email, Jambela offered no response to the allegations that she was exploiting immigrants and not registering them with the tax authorities.
She said that she is sorry that people view her absence from the office negatively. She claims the electricity supply in the business park is unstable, forcing her to work from home. She says, scaling down has left only one person in the office, but she insists that it is open and says she looks forward to returning there.
Kate Jambela has sent GroundUp an email threatening legal action. We have suggested to her that she instead sends us a letter to publish or lodges a complaint with the Press Ombudsman. We would co-operate with and abide by findings of the Press Ombudsman. Our offer stands.
We asked an experienced journalist to analyse the way we researched this article and the content of the article. Based on his feedback we make the following points.