Cape Town – The Department of Labour and Employment has called on employers and workers to empower themselves with knowledge to prevent the contravention of their rights.
This comes following the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)’s visit to restaurants in Gauteng last week to establish the employment ratio between South African employees and foreign nationals.
According to EWN, the department said that not even inspectors could walk into workplaces randomly without a justifiable cause.
The department’s Inspector-General Aggy Moiloa said that Sections 64 to 66 in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act spelled out who was appointed as labour inspectors and what their rights and powers were.
“For instance, the right to access any workplace at any time. The right to having access to information and certain documents that is within the law…
“So it’s a very highly regulated environment, so you can’t just wake up and say today you are going to conduct an inspection…when you do not have the justifiable delegation. Our inspectors have to go through a rigorous process,” the report quoted Moiloa as saying.
EFF’s inspection of the restaurants last week received mixed reactions from different parts of the country, including political organisations and media personalities.
ALSO READ | WATCH | EFF to assess how many South Africans the hospitality industry employs, says Julius Malema
Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said MPs were allowed to conduct oversight visits provided they did not threaten anyone and they followed their code of conduct, Times Live reported.
EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini said the reason the party conducted inspections at restaurants in Gauteng was to ensure coexistence among African people in the hospitality sector.
“The visit by the president and commander-in-chief was to engage with the business owners and business industry in this country.
“They must come on board to make sure that there’s coexistence between our African brothers and sisters and ourselves,” Dlamini said,” according to IOL.
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Compiled by Odwa Shumi
