Numsa distances itself from two Bidvest workers' death

THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has distanced itself from the deaths of two workers at Bidvest South African Container Depot (SACD) in Durban, KZN.

Kenneth Luthuli from FXO and Sithembiso Mthembu from Adcorp BLU were attacked and killed this week.

FXO and Adcorp BLU are external service providers used by Bidvest.

Bidvest issued a memo suggesting the two murders were related to the ongoing Numsa strike.

"These individuals were victims of violent criminal acts experienced during the current Numsa strike," said company's managing director Luvuyo Hobo.

Numsa spokeswoman Phakamile Hlubi-Majola told Daily Sun on Friday, 17 January, it was unfortunate that Bidvest has used the incident to suggest the union was responsible for the deaths of the workers.

"As Numsa, we reject that. We're a union that abides by the law. We don't condone or support any violence," she said.

Hlubi-Majola pointed out that one of the murders took place about 20km away from Bidvest properties.

ALSO READ | Five men 'abducted' then hacked to death!Opens in new window

She also said that one of their members was killed prior to the deaths of Luthuli and Mthembu and Bidvest didn't issue out a memo.

"We distance ourselves from that and aren't going to take responsibility for things that haven't been proven in a court of law. We don't condone violence, and reject the suggestion that somehow, we're responsible for violent acts and that somehow the strike has something to do with the deaths of certain workers, especially when those types of suggestions are made without concrete evidence," said Hlubi-Majola.

She said the company was trying to use the incidents to distract workers from the real reasons for the strike.

Workers downed tools on 6 January following issuance of retrenchment letters.

The company cited "the significant downturn and loss of business activity due to intense market competition, leading to the underutilisation of warehouse services".

Hlubi-Majola added: "During the Section 189 engagements with them, it emerged through interrogation that actually this company is not doing as badly as they claim. In fact, not only have they not lost customers, but they're also gaining new customers.

"We were able to extract from them that what they're actually doing is that they're trying to increase profit by outsourcing this particular arm of the business. Basically, Bidvest is cutting jobs because of greed."