DA to call for axing of Yengeni

5 June 2016

As reported in the media today, Lumka Yengeni, Chairperson of the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Labour has ironically been found guilty at the CCMA of violating the country’s labour laws and in doing so flagrantly violating the rights of her domestic worker who also enjoys the protection of labour laws. This is simply unacceptable and must be removed as the Chairperson of the Labour Commitee.

The DA will be calling on the ANC Chief Whip, Jackson Mthembu, and the Chair of Chair’s in Parliament, Cedric Frolick, to ensure that Mrs Yengeni is removed from her position and replaced with a chairperson who in fact does care about the rights of workers.

According to media reports and CCMA documents, Chairperson Yengeni has violated the rights of a domestic worker, whom she fired by failing to comply with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and other labour legislation in the following ways:

1. She failed to supply a letter of appointment or an employment contract to the domestic worker;

2. She failed to give the domestic worker a payslip; 

3. Her employee was not given leave, and never paid for any leave;

4. Her employee was not paid double on public holidays despite the fact being forced to work on public holidays;

5. Her employee could not choose time off and worked in excess of the hours expected of her;

6. Her employee was never informed that she was registered for UIF (it appears that this registration took place after she left);

7. There were no deductions from the employees payment for the UIF etc.,

8. Her employee was on call throughout the night and far exceeded any overtime as outlined in the Basic conditions of Employment Act;

9. Her employee was paid a lesser wage than the other employee and thereby showing discrimination and breach of the Labour Relations Act;

10. Her employee was promised a uniform and an overall and work shoes which promise was never filled thereby rendering it a breach of contract;

11. Her employee did not have the legislated gap between one shift and another (in essence she was on duty twenty four hours out of every twenty four);

12. Her employee was in employ from the 15th July 2013 up until the 14th February 2016 and throughout that period did not receive any leave of any nature;

13. The employee was merely informed that her employment was terminated, she was not given the right to a hearing and nor was she given any notice;

14. The employee did not have any reason for the termination of her employment (this being a complete breach of the employees’ rights in terms of The Labour Relations Act).

Finally the employee settled her matter which settlement is confidential. The employee has not received any sort of reference of any nature thereby effectively abusing her right to try and find alternative employment.

This behavior by a public representative, much less the Chairperson of Parliament’s Labour Committee is unacceptable for two reasons:

- Mrs. Yengeni has travelled the length and breadth of South Africa lambasting employers for breaking the country’s labour laws when in fact she herself was in breach of these same laws

- Mrs Yengeni, as the Chairperson of the Labour Committee is responsible for oversight of the CCMA and the Department of Labour, the very entities, which have essentially found her guilty of being in breach of the country’s labour laws, the very laws she is charged with overseeing.

As such Mrs Yengeni cannot continue to chair the Labour Committee as she now has a profound conflict of interest.

However this is not the first senior ANC official who has been caught abusing workers in South Africa. For example, Agriculture Minister Senzani Zokwana was widely reported in the media to have paid his farm workers R26 a day, far below the agriculture minimum wage. Both Zokwana and Yengeni have been outspoken campaigners for minimum wages and better working conditions for workers. Mrs Yengeni has even referred to employers as slave traders because she was purportedly “unhappy” with the wages being paid. Yet she does this very thing herself. This shows a trend in the ANC to say one thing in public about workers needs and then personally abuse workers.

This hypocrisy is simply unacceptable and in the interests of the scores of workers and labours in SA, the DA simply cannot allow her to remain as Chairperson of this Committee or any committee for that matter. As such, she must be removed if we are to meaningfully put the rights of workers at the apex of the Committee’s agenda and restore credibility to the committee itself.

Statement issued by Ian Ollis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, 5 June 2016