Immigrants accuse construction company of abusive labour practices
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.
EDITOR’S NOTE
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.
- The article contains certain plausible allegations made by workers. Kate Jambela was given adequate opportunity to respond to these allegations. We have printed both the allegations and Ms Jambela’s responses to them, to the extent that she provided answers. The article is fair. Readers are given both sides of the story and can draw their own conclusions; the article does not tell readers whose side to take. We would prefer Ms Jambela not to take legal action against us, but we believe the article is defensible and not defamatory. Ms Jambela has not provided us with any basis to justify withdrawing the article. As matters are, we stand by the story.
- We should have disclosed that the journalist who wrote the story, Tariro Washinyira, is married to one of the disgruntled labourers who worked for Ms Jambela and was interviewed for this article. This was an omission on our part for which we apologise and hereby correct. However, the facts of the story do not stand or fall on this.
- The sentence “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.” should have been attributed as an allegation by one of the former employees. However the allegation that employees were not on contracts was put to Ms Jambela and she did not address it in her response to us before the story was published.
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Letters
Dear Editor
My name is Sheperd Ratisai. I'm an immigrant and I have been working for Jambela Construction for the past 10 years. I stumbled upon this article and I have to inform everyone that the info in this article is very much INCORRECT!!
From the picture one can clearly see shoddy workmanship. The bath is clearly incomplete and putting blocks inside the bath is unacceptable as it can damage the bath. Plumbing pipes behind the toilet should either be outside or concealed completely. The toilet is leaking too! How can ANY company pay someone for work done THIS poorly?
Whether immigrant or South African, we must produce quality to get paid. Furthermore, I think this article is one-sided in that none of us (the artisans and the rest of the labour) were contacted or interviewed for this article to gather the correct facts. Working for this company is how I feed my family and one of the reasons I have been here for the past 10 years.
We have always been paid and if delayed it was communicated to us but the payment WOULD surely come. It pains me that this article gives a completely inaccurate view of Ms Jambela. Ms Jambela is very strict with the quality of our work. The company builds government houses that are equal to the standard of bonded houses. I challenge you to come and see for yourself!!
I have told all my colleagues, both immigrants AND South Africans, about this article and we plan to contact the press ombudsman about this journalist! This is defamatory and for "GroundUp" to publish this kind of incorrect information is dangerous for your organisation! If you want to confirm all of what I am writing here I will stand up for the truth.
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