Owners of company contracted by City abscond, leaving angry unpaid workers

Skyforce is a company that got a cleaning tender from the City of Cape Town to clean stations in different parts of Cape Town, including Lwandle, Atlantis, Somerset, Durbanville, Kuyasa, Khayelitsha and Nonqubela.

According to workers they have not applied for permission for the picket but they want to speak to the mayor so that she can assist them.

“We are hungry and angry, we have no money so if needs be we will eat in town and the mayor will pay for whatever we eat. There are shops and stores in town. We will take and someone will pay,” shouted a worker at a meeting of about 40 people at Kuyasa Station in Khayelitsha on Saturday morning.

Tshabalala Jaca who is the supervisor of more than 100 Skyforce employees said that he is disappointed that his employers Lungephi and Lulama Tom have disappeared without paying their full salaries or indicating the way forward about their employment.

“Monday we are going to show that we are tired of being played as fools by fly-by-night companies. We are used as cheap labourers.”

“We want the Mayor to terminate the Skyforce contract and force them to pay us our money, and if not we will take matters into our own hands”, said Jaca.

According to Jaca, the workers approached Phumza Sityata, Regional Operations Manager for the City of Cape Town, who according to Jaca said that the City has to deal with the company it contracted, not its employees. Jaca also claimed that Sityata said that they should be lenient to the Skyforce company because they are still young.

The workers salaries are, according to Jaca, R3,200 per month. Jaca claims they were not paid in February, and only paid R2,500 in March and April. They apparently met with the Toms on 6 May, who promised to pay them all monies owed, but have not done so.

Jaca said that when he last spoke with the couple they said that the company has no capital but promised to pay them as soon they have the money. Jaca said that subsequently, together with other workers, they went to the Skyforce offices in Mandela Park, where they discovered it was their residential home, which was also used as an office. “The landlord of the house said that the couple has moved out and took all their belongings and does not know where they stay,” said Jaca.

Zandile Tshongweni who is team leader at the company said that they have stopped working because they do not know what they working for. She says she doesn’t know whether or not the company still exists.

Tshongweni said that they did not sign any contract with the company. All they have as evidence are their time-sheets. She also said that the people from the company used to come and monitor them but they are no longer coming anymore.

Tshongweni said that they have children, schools fees and rent to pay so they need the money.

“We are frustrated because now we getting poorer and some of us sleep without eating but we are able to wake up to go to work only to find out there is no work,“ said Tshangweni.

We have made several attempts to get hold of the Toms. We will get comment from the City when the picket takes place today.