Speaker 1: Early morning and special assignment leads
labour inspectors into an obscure unnamed factory. This is one of
Johannesburg's so called sweat shops, shady, hidden and staffed mostly by
illegal immigrants who often work under appaling conditions. Manned entirely by
Malawians, this factory manufactures roast peanuts and flavoured corn chips.
Earlier this morning we had told the Department of Labour about a number of
sweat shops around Johannesburg. This one the inspectors say is one of the
worst they've ever seen.
Inspector: [inaudible 00:00:34]
They are working with food, they don't have the ...
Speaker
3: The
uniforms.
Inspector: The uniforms, okay?
And then your machines are not covered with guards and then your housekeeping
is very bad, you see?
Speaker
3: Yeah.
Speaker
1: Two
months earlier our investigation had started in the same peanut factory. We
infiltrated the premises with a spy camera. The workers complained that they
often had to sleep here. On this day there'd been no time even to wash, but it
didn't stop them from handling the food. Less than a metre away from sizzling
oil stoves open wires stuck out of a faulty socket. None of the equipment had
been cleaned, and workers had no uniforms. Instead they were covered in food,
dust and sweat from head to toe.
Speaker
1: Lunch
and tea breaks didn't seem to be encouraged, and then the boss came in. The
workers introduced him as Anaz. We later discovered that his surname was Patel
and that he also has a retail shop called Snack Tack. Street hawkers buy in
bulk from Patel to sell to an unsuspecting public. Anaz was worried we were
from the police, so he gave an order that we must be given 2 kg of peanuts. In
exchange for the bribe we had to leave quickly, before we could check his
workers illegal status.
Speaker
1: Close
on the edge of Johannesburg central business district is Fordsburg. Streets
awash with exotic sounds and the fragrance of curry and incense. Fordsburg is
perhaps best known for the Oriental Plaza. This is where Indian shopkeepers
were banished when the apartheid government cleaned up black spots in the white
suburbs in the 1970s.
Speaker
1: The
community took eviction in their stride and turned Fordsburg into a commercial
mecca. While shopping centres have mushroomed throughout Johannesburg the Plaza
is still where bargain hunters come for best buys.
Shop
owner: At
Cosmos we give you good prices, sir. Our card, please keep our business card.
Please call again.
Customer: Thank you.
Shop
owner: Thank
you very much. Please come to Cosmos again, you're most welcome.
Speaker
1: But
today the real story of Fordsburg lies in the streets beyond the bright façade
of the restaurants and the Plaza. It's a story of exploitation, abuse and
lawlessness.
Jounalist: Knock, knock
[inaudible 00:03:43] hey ...
Speaker
1: Behind
the steel door early one morning special assignment's undercover journalist
detects signs of life. There's no company signboard or any indication that
manufacturing might take place here.
Jounalist: Come closer.
Speaker
1: A
sleepy Malawian worker has appeared from somewhere in the back.
Jounalist: 9 O'clock?
Speaker
7: 9
O'clock.
Jounalist: They're opening for
you 9 o'clock?
Speaker
7: Okay.
Jounalist: Okay, did you work
during the day yesterday?
Speaker
7: [inaudible
00:04:06]
Jounalist: You, you work
during the day yesterday?
Speaker
7: Yeah.
Jounalist: From what time?
Speaker
7: 6
o'clock, 9 o'clock morning.
Jounalist: Okay, so at least
you got more money. You got overtime.
Speaker
7: Nothing,
nothing.
Jounalist: No overtime?
Tom: Whether
you like it or not you have worked night shift. You see? Thereafter they leave
that place then they lock there by the gate.
Speaker
1: Freedom
of movement is an internationally recognised basic human right. But not if you
work in this factory.
Jounalist: You don't work
today?
Speaker
7: I
work.
Jounalist: The whole day?
Speaker
7: Yeah,
I work the whole day.
James: I can't go to
the police and complain because I don't have an ID.
Speaker
1: Trapped
by their illegal status and exploited by the greed of their employers this is
what life is like in a sweat shop. If you work in this factory you better pray
a fire doesn't break out because no one has a key to get out when the managers
leave at night. If you can't carry on through the night after a full day's work
there are no sleeping quarters except for the floor or a worn out couch.
Jounalist: You got a small
[inaudible 00:05:19] So it's knock off time now? Are you knocking off?
Speaker
7: No,
we are starting now.
Jounalist: You want to start
working?
Speaker
1: You
eat wherever you find a spot among the piles of fabric that is if you can
afford food on the meagre wages you earn. And right near bales of linen cigarettes
can be lit on an ancient hot place.
Speaker
1: There's
no remedy for free floating fabric fibres so you must contrive your own
protective mask or else you can get very sick.
Tom: We are
feeling pain here inside the nose. Then if you take out the mucus, it mix with
the blood, you see?
James: According to
the materials we are using now there is some sort we call the winter sheets. So
it's almost everyone in that factory right now is coughing, when [inaudible
00:06:19] blowing it is mucus mixed with some sort of blood.
Jounalist: How many do you do
per day?
Tom: This one?
Jounalist: Yeah.
Tom: 400 and
something.
Jounalist: 400? Packing hey?
Tom: Yeah.
Speaker
1: The
packers have blisters on their fingers from stuffing linen into plastic packets
that are too small. The work is repetitive and with the sheer bulk of the
fabric it's back breaking.
James: When we are
packing, just packing [inaudible 00:06:50] take a bed sheet, two pillows, a bed
cover, some sort of six or five pieces. So we pack it in a small plastic. We're
forced to pack it so we feel the pain on our chest.
Tom: If you are
not physically fit you can't even manage to carry the things.
James: When you are
maybe just relaxing, just to stretch your body. He'll say "Hey what are
you doing? Must do fast, fast the work. You see I've got a big order so you
must make it fast, fast."
Speaker
1: This
is the man who brings in the orders, tells them to work and pays them. His name
is Mohamed Sadik. He prefers to hire foreigners but if needs be unsophisticated
rural South African's who don't insist on their rights will do.
Mohamed
Sadik: I need
now [inaudible 00:07:38] people because [inaudible 00:07:38] people is little
bit stronger and quickly. Around the city, the city people is lazy.
Jounalist: Very lazy.
Mohamed
Sadik: Fabric
cost R24. [inaudible 00:07:38] and two pillow cases.
Speaker
1: Special
assignment's undercover reporter poses as a prospective factory owner. Sadik
tells him what it takes to turn a profit in a factory like this.
Mohamed
Sadik: ...
that means R26.50 your cost.
Speaker
1: On
R26.50 if the fabric as he says costs R24.00, stitching and packing costs
R2.50. No matter how cheap or expensive the fabric in this factory, labour is
always R2.50.
Jounalist: Today you got
money, it's payday isn't it?
Tom: Yeah.
Jounalist: You got paid
yesterday?
Tom: No today.
Jounalist: They give you
envelopes?
Tom: No, only
just cash in hand.
Jounalist: Cash in the hand? I
mean you don't get it in envelopes or writing how much ...
Tom: No, no no
Jounalist: They just give cash
in the hand.
Tom: They just
call in one guy, one guy ... go and see there in the office.
Jounalist: And then you put
your money in your pocket?
Tom: Yeah.
Jounalist: And how do they
know you have overtime? They tell you you work overtime? Or you have to tell
them?
Tom: Which
means it's night shift.
Jounalist: Night shift is
overtime.
Tom: Sometimes
we work [inaudible 00:09:08]
Speaker
1: And
this despite the fact that Tom has upgraded his skills by teaching himself how
to sew. As a packer he earned a R185.00 a week. One night shift was R20.00. Now
that he can sew he sets his own income level but at 10c a sheet there are too
few hours in the day to make a living.
Tom: Sometimes
I make 300 something, maybe 350, which means early in the morning also I should
have to wake up early in the morning at least to get something. Maybe to make
it maybe altogether it must be maybe 400 and sometimes 500. If I make it 500
which means it's the R50 I've made it.
James: They pay me
R150 ... that means a day is R25.00. So if I'm sick for 3 days, they cut R75
and they also give me R75. They don't say you are sick ... they say you're on
holiday.
Speaker
1: When
they don't collapse of exhaustion at the factory, home is a shared room in a
hostel. Rent is a week's wages. Many camera shy immigrants live here. They
don't bring any belongings from the factory for fear of theft. This uprooted
life reminds them of how far away home really is and how they're letting their
wives and children down back in Malawi.
Tom: They're
giving me a little money so how can I send home money? I have to pay rent as
well. And what about food?
James: I remember
it's now 5 months after I phoned her. I phoned and what she told me ...
[inaudible 00:10:49] was about to cry. She said: 'I want to see you. What are
you doing there? What can your children do? We hope you are coming here with a
car as you told me?' I said .... forget about a car, even a bicycle, forget
about that. Just pray to God to give me life so we can meet in the next so, so
...
Speaker
1: Incredibly,
some immigrants do bring their families to try and make a life together in the
city. We find an entire office block crammed with foreigners working round the
clock. On the fifth floor they invite us into one of their mini factories. It's
about 8 o'clock at night. They tell us they make R1 to R3 per dress and they
can make up to sixty dresses if they work more than eighteen hour days. The
shop floor has also become the kitchen and the lounge and the bedroom. A
newborn baby brings the number of people in the room to eight.
Speaker
1: Under
apartheid black workers notoriously earned less than whites but since all South
Africans now have the same rights entrepreneurs have found a new source of
cheap labour. Undocumented migrant workers.
Speaker
1: Paulus
Sithole is one such undocumented migrant. A Zimbabwean who came here in 1995
and worked illegally for five years.
Paulus
Sithole: When
I came here I quickly found a job at Bhadelia's. I was here for hardly two
weeks. I thought he was a nice guy because it was my first job here. We signed
some legal documents, we were given rules like no smoking inside. My first
wages were R125 then it increased to R130 then R140 and in the end R150.
Speaker
1: This
is where Paulus got work in 1995. The factory belongs to Hassan Bhadelia. Among
other ventures Bhadelia manufactures bed linen and runs a wholesale enterprise.
In those days many South Africans worked at Bahdelia's manufacturing too. Mary
Ntako was one of them. A seamstress, she even trained other staff but says she
earned less than her trainees who were all foreigners.
Mary
Ntako: At
the beginning of 1998 we toi toi'd. We needed money but we never got it. We
quit and when we demanded money for our services he told us he didn't have it.
He then said he didn't want to work with South Africans anymore. He wanted to
work with immigrants because he too was an immigrant.
Paulus
Sithole: He
fired some of them and chose a few to stay behind. I was one of them. There
were eight people left.
Mary
Ntako: He
didn't close the firm, it was functioning day and night. Indians worked during
the day. They went in to do the sewing, and at night the boys who made the
fibre went in.
Speaker
1: Many
entrepreneurs resented the new labour laws and vibrant trade unions after 1994.
Like many others Bhadelia Manufacturers seemed to go underground. He closed
shop for a while and when he reopened he hired mostly immigrants, discouraging
protest allowing labour standards to slip in favour of profit.
Paulus
Sithole: The
machines were illegal and a lot of people got hurt. When you get hurt and you
need to stay at home, they wouldn't pay you.
Speaker
1: Bhadelia
Manufacturers make many labels, among them Mams Linen. These are the same goods
we found first in Mohamed Sadik's factory. It seems business prospered so that
Bhadelia helped others like Sadik set up satellite factories. Labour
malpractice was thus merely replicated from Fordsburg to surrounding suburbs
with workers little more than extensions of the machines they operate.
Paulus
Sithole: If
I get a job where the money is not so good but the working environment is good
that would be fine.
Speaker
1: We
take our findings and suspicions of malpractice to the Department of Labour.
Inspector: The fact that you are
all able and capable and willing to do this exercise at this time of the
morning, and to be out there to protect workers in whatever way is possible.
Speaker
1: All
inspection teams strikes simultaneously. At the factories we target only one
owner is present at this time of the morning. For the next 2 hours Mohamed
Sadik faces a grilling about everything in his factory. From the lack of soap
to wash hands, to faulty plugs, to hazardous cabling, to the obvious violation
of his workers rights.
Inspector: If you just work till
6 o'clock where do you sleep?
Speaker
15: Just
sleeping any place.
Inspector: Every night?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Inspector: Here?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Man
with glasse: No
blankets.
Speaker
15: This
one. We use this one.
Man
with glasse: You
just use this thing as a blanket?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Man
with glasse: And
then you sleep with it?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Man
with glasse: And
then you start at six and finish at nine?
Speaker
15: Six.
When we start at 6 o'clock we finish at 12 o'clock.
Man with
glasse: At
night?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Man
with glasse: And
then, how do you go home? You can't go home, you have to sleep here?
Speaker
15: Yeah,
just sleeping here.
Man
with glasse: Until
he comes and opens ...
Speaker
15: Yeah,
and we starting 9 o'clock again.
Man
with glasse: Again?
You again?
Speaker
15: Yeah.
Speaker
1: We
decide to move one around the corner to Hassan Bhadelia's factory for comment.
Sadik is after all Bhadelia's supplier. This morning inspectors battled to get
in but by the time we arrive they've gained access.
Speaker
15: Mr.
[inaudible 00:24:46]? No he's in Sandton.
Speaker
1: Business
must be booming. Bhadelia is currently expending into the warehouse next door
but the man himself is illusive today. When our cameras get inside all
operations have seized. Machines are dead and workers have all but disappeared
from the premises.
Inspector: Have you interviewed
employees already?
Man
with blue h: The
employees are all illegal and they don't want to talk to us.
Inspector: They don't want to
talk to us?
Man
with gray s: Are
they local people?
Man
with blue h: They
are not local people, they are foreigners.
Man
with gray s: All of
them.
Speaker
1: Bhadelia
is also not at his oldest factory on the other side of Fordsburg. None the less
the scrutiny continues. As at all the other factories safety seems to be his
last concern. Fire escapes are blocked and there's no running water.
Speaker
1: In
Bhadelia's absence several warnings must be issued. In the new factory a raised
work floor is even shut down.
Man
with blue h: There
should have been an emergency exit. There should have been fire extinguishers
in place, there is absolutely nothing.
Speaker
1: What
did you find in terms of the fire extinguishers in this place?
Man
with blue h: The
fire extinguishers have not been serviced since 1994.
Speaker
1: Finally,
Bhadelia arrives. Shocked at the morning's concerted onslaught on his entire
operation he first wants to speak to his managers. A short briefing later and
he's happy to tell us he will fully comply with the inspection report and get
his house in order. He will even invite inspectors back regularly and work with
the Department of Labour to fix the faults, but he's clearly not thrilled.
Hassan
Bhadelia: I am
from Pakistan, I am from foreign country, and I can work in Pakistan as well.
But why I'm sitting here because I can create more jobs and my better life is
here as well, and a better business here. But with all this labour problems and
labour unions which, in their laws which owner doesn't have any right to say
I'm sorry to say if it runs like this we have to shut down and go home.
Speaker
1: But
at 27 West Street workers don't have the easy option of going home. They've
slaved away all night, having earned barely enough to feed themselves today.
Nonetheless inspectors take a hard line.
Man
with blue h: So when
did it expire? Did you renew it?
Speaker
1: A
factory deemed unsuitable is shut down until improvements can be made. The most
radical response of the day happens within an hour of the inspector's arrival.
The notorious peanut factory is summarily shut down.
Inspector: So what we're gonna
do here, we're gonna make a walk through inspection, and we're gonna check all
the necessary documents that is required. So there is no covering of this
machinery, see? [crosstalk 00:24:46]
Man
with blue h: Where
are you from?
Worker
with Bla: Malawi.
Man
with blue h: Malawi?
Worker
with Bla: Sometimes
we come 6 o'clock.
Man
with blue h: 6
o'clock in the morning?
Worker
with Bla: In the
morning. After that ...
Man
with blue h: And
then what time do you finish working?
Worker
with Bla: We
knock off, sometimes we sleeping here.
Man
with blue h: [inaudible
00:21:02]
Inspector: Very unbearable
actually, it's unacceptable in terms of environmental regulation. Housekeeping
it's very bad. It's very bad.
Inspector: You can't continue
working in this work environment, okay? So, and then, this is a contravention
notice of the environmental regulation.
Worker
with Bla: Yeah.
Inspector: Can you sign? Here.
You can just sign here. Just put your signature. We are going to switch off
everything here. Can you come and show me?
Speaker
1: Minutes
after the inspectors have left factory boss Anaz Patel arrives. The factory
workers describe him as the owner and the man who pays them their slave wages
of less than R200 a week. He says the factory belongs to his cousin.
Jounalist: But what is your
relation to the factory?
Anaz
Patel: So
I'm just a customer here.
Jounalist: Do you buy that?
Anaz
Patel: No,
no they [inaudible 00:22:05] some peanuts for me whatever and then I go and
sell it ...
Jounalist: So you buy from
him?
Anaz
Patel: Yeah.
Jounalist: Are you a customer?
Anaz
Patel: Yeah.
Speaker
1: Back
in Fordsburg it's lunch time. For the first time today the Department of
Labor's inspectors can sit down and collate their findings.
Man
with gray s: Well
firstly, let me say that I'm completely horrified by the things that one saw
there. I have always known that we have employers who don't comply with the
legislation, but I did not think that it was to that extent.
Inspector: I'm sure those of us
that have animals don't even treat them that way. And so a combination of all
those regulations being violated forces us not to ignore anything or not to
take the sympathetic approach.
Man
with gray s: Sometimes
we have scarce skills that are brought in here by foreign workers, and we need
them but they must be here legally and if they are to be here illegally and
then their rights are violated law must apply.
Inspector: One doesn't want to
see people loosing their jobs under any circumstances, but surely if people are
being abused the way that we saw this morning, and all their rights are being
violated and employers are creating wealth out of the suffering of other
people, then I don't believe we can sit back and unfortunately in the process
of dealing with these there may be workers that will be repatriated back to
their countries. There may be others that could obtain work permits, we don't
know, but we cannot leave the situation as it is and we need to deal with it.
Speaker
1: Hours
after the raid Sadik shut his factory down. Tom and James are ready to leave
anyway. After years of living here everything they own fits into a few boxes
and suitcases in a friends garage.
James: So I was here
... I spent here two years. In these two years I've lost my everything. Lost my
health here.
Tom: I have
sold my body for money because of the hard work there in the factory. I am just
feeling pain in my whole body.
James: So I think
maybe it's fine, maybe I can go back home and see what can I do. Maybe if I
come back again, maybe I will have luck. One day, yeah everything will be
changed, because you know [inaudible 00:24:28] it's hard but at long last you
get something.