Transnet is pushing ahead with relocating the head office of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) from Johannesburg to the Port of Ngqura in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), ignoring the ongoing consultation process which the Employer and the United National Transport Union (UNTU) referred to its legal teams.
Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU, says Transnet stated that 372 of approximately eight hundred (800) employees affected by the relocation fall within the ambit of the Transnet Bargaining Council (TBC), but failed to indicate who they are.
According to Harris, Transnet informed UNTU that it will go ahead with a viewing of the Emendi building on Sunday 5 September 2021 and plans to welcome employees the next day. Harris says Transnet planned on spending R31 million to make alterations to the building, but still has no compliance certificate in place.
“As it is now, employees will be packed like sardines. This is unacceptable as South Africa is amidst the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. To make matters worse is that the country recently learned that there is a new strain of the virus referred to as C.1.2 variant, that has been detected in the country. UNTU remains of the view that the Emendi building is too small to accommodate all the affected employees.” says Harris.
The R255-million building was unveiled by TNPA CEO Richard Vallihu on 27 June 2017. Vallihu then said that the building can house 205 staff and will cater for Ngqura’s growing staff complement as the port continues to expand into a major container transhipment hub for sub-Saharan Africa.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens