Africans employed by British multinational Group 4 Securicor face racial insults and are paid so poorly, they are forced to live in homes with no running water or electricity, according to a fact-finding team that has returned from South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi. The company, which helped bring the Olympics to London, is a likely bidder for security contracts.
“I met with G4S guards in Malawi who are so poorly paid they’re forced to make decisions no one, particularly a parent, wants to make—which child’s school fees should be paid.” Dave Ritchie, executive member Unite.
A fact-finding team, assembled by UNI Property Services interviewed G4S guards, their family members, union leaders and government officials about the security company's practices. They visited southern Africa April 16-20, 2007. Their findings are highlighted below:
Allowing racist behaviour to go unchecked
● Kaffirs and Monkeys Guards at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa allege G4S supervisors refer to them as kaffirs and monkeys. SATAWU, the union representing guards at the airport, had to petition for their removal.
● Whites Only Toilets Guards reported that in Pretoria, South Africa a G4S manager provides white employees with keys to the company toilet. Black guards are forced to use the toilet in a nearby mall.
Maintaining policies that keep guards in poverty
● Guards in Malawi earn typically around $27 per month, however they
could earn more. G4S requires guards to work 12 hours per day. Instead of increasing their hourly pay for the four hours of overtime they typically work each day, G4S reduces their wages by half. G4S maintains Malawi law allows it to do so; however this policy violates the company's own Terms and Conditions for Employees.
● In both Malawi and Mozambique, guards report they are not allowed to take paid leave. One guard from Blantyre, Malawi, reported that he had worked an entire year with only a single paid day off. He was allowed one day off to attend a funeral.
● In Mozambique, the company admitted to an arbitration panel it had not paid guards overtime for more than a decade -- from 1994 to 2005-- however it has refused to fully pay back pay to guards who were never compensated for their overtime hours.
● In Mozambique, guards owed redundancy payments when the company's contract with the U.S. Embassy wasn't renewed last year are still waiting for the company to act. Meanwhile many struggle to get by.
"Global companies like Group 4 Securicor have global responsibilities. The Olympic games are a venue for global companies that respect human rights everywhere they operate,” said Christy Hoffman of UNI Property Services.
“The racism and poor wages and conditions which G4S African workers suffer beggar belief. We call on Mr Livingstone to make decent treatment for all workers a condition for the company winning 2012 Olympics security contracts. But the British government must introduce binding regulation over UK firms' behaviour towards its overseas workers. Jackie Simpkins, War On Want.
The entire report can be found on www.union-network.org/property.
Press Availability Members of the fact-finding team, as well as Patrick Finyamowa, a G4S guard whom investigators met while in Blantyre, Malawi, are travelling to London and Berlin to share their findings with elected leaders, human rights campaigners, union members as well as NGOs with a special interest in Africa.
A special briefing hosted by the Transport and General Workers Union and War is Want is scheduled for Thursday, May 30 at 6 p.m. Verdi, Germany’s largest union, will host the delegation for a briefing in Berlin on May 31.
Background on Group 4 Securicor Group 4 Securicor employs more than 82,000 workers in 18 African nations. It is not only large, but it is growing. In 2007, it purchased two security firms on the continent—one in South Africa and another in Mozambique. Globally, G4S employs more than 470,000 workers in 104 countries.
The company provides an array of security services including guards for high-profile sports and entertainment events. In 2006 they obtained contracts from World Cup organizers in Germany. It's a likely bidder for contracts at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the London Olympic Games in 2012.
About UNI Property Services: UNI Property Services Global Union is an organization of labour unions from around the world that represent cleaners and security workers, among the world's most low paid and vulnerable employees.
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
New telco to invest USD56 million
Access Communications, Malawi’s newly authorised fixed line provider, intends to invest MWK7.8 billion (USD56 million) in infrastructure development during its 15-year licence period, a Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) official has said. ‘Access Communications intends to build up its own infrastructure as well as utilise possibilities of infrastructure sharing with existing operators in places where the infrastructure and capacity is readily available,’ said Lloyd Momba, Deputy Director of MACRA’s Spectrum Department, adding that negotiations over the finer points of Access’s licence were expected to take place in the next three months, including the date by which services are expected to be launched. MACRA issued a licence to Access as the countries second national operator to provide fixed telephony on 25 May 2007. TeleGeography estimates that at the end of 2006, Malawi had just 113,000 fixed lines in operation, all provided by incumbent Malawi Telecommunications Ltd (MTL).
Former Premier to attend Malawi's First Lady's funeral
President Chen Shui-bian named former Premier Su Tseng-chang on Tuesday as his envoy to attend the funeral of Malawi's first lady. The wife of Malawian President Mutharika passed away on May 28.
Su will head a delegation to the southeast African country Thursday. The funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
This will be Su's second visit to Malawi, one of Taiwan's five diplomatic allies in Africa. His first visit was in July 2002 when he accompanied President Chen on a tour to Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland and Malawi.
Su will head a delegation to the southeast African country Thursday. The funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
This will be Su's second visit to Malawi, one of Taiwan's five diplomatic allies in Africa. His first visit was in July 2002 when he accompanied President Chen on a tour to Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland and Malawi.
AIDS seen as new threat to African democracy
AIDS may be killing elected officials in some Southern African countries faster than they can be replaced, creating a new threat to democracy and governance in the region, a new study said.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said [that] a study of mortality patterns in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal indicated [that] Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.
"Our findings have shown [that] there has been a sharp rise in the number of elected leaders that have died prematurely of illness," Kondwani Chirambo, head of the governance and AIDS programme at IDASA, said at a recent conference in Cape Town.
"If you compare the trends before the onset of the pandemic and after, we do see that patterns of death mimic the mortality pattern of the general population," he said.
Chirambo's research casts a new light on southern Africa's HIV/AIDS problem as South Africa prepares for its biannual AIDS conference in Durban, which begins on Tuesday.
While the epidemic's toll in human lives and medical expense is well documented, the study showed that HIV/AIDS is also responsible for political-power shifts and extra strain on treasuries that have to organise by-elections, IDASA said.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 25 million of the 39 million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS, a crisis that is increasingly felt across social classes.
Few deaths of public figures in Africa are openly attributed to HIV/AIDS, reflecting the deep stigma that continues to accompany the disease across the continent.
But signs are AIDS is taking its toll among politicians, just as it is with ordinary Africans.
In Malawi, a recent study showed that a total of 42 MPs have died between 1994 and 2006. In an official statement in 2000, the speaker of the national assembly attributed 28 of these deaths to AIDS-related causes, Chirambo said.
In neighbouring Zambia, in the 20-year period between independence in 1964 and the first reported AIDS case in 1984, only 14 out of 46 by-elections were held as a result of death. Between 1985 and 2003, 102 by-elections have been held and, of those, 39 were a result of officials dying in office.
Between 1994 and 2006, 23 vacancies have been recorded in the South African parliament as a result of death.
Alan Whiteside, director of health economics and the HIV/AIDS research division at the University of KwaZulu Natal, said [that] the new research showed [that] the pandemic is having a cumulative impact on Africa's institutions, but that many countries are not equipped to deal with it.
"HIV/AIDS is having an impact not just on electoral institutions, but also on government and governance, and we have underestimated this impact," Whiteside told Reuters in an interview.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said [that] a study of mortality patterns in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal indicated [that] Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.
"Our findings have shown [that] there has been a sharp rise in the number of elected leaders that have died prematurely of illness," Kondwani Chirambo, head of the governance and AIDS programme at IDASA, said at a recent conference in Cape Town.
"If you compare the trends before the onset of the pandemic and after, we do see that patterns of death mimic the mortality pattern of the general population," he said.
Chirambo's research casts a new light on southern Africa's HIV/AIDS problem as South Africa prepares for its biannual AIDS conference in Durban, which begins on Tuesday.
While the epidemic's toll in human lives and medical expense is well documented, the study showed that HIV/AIDS is also responsible for political-power shifts and extra strain on treasuries that have to organise by-elections, IDASA said.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 25 million of the 39 million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS, a crisis that is increasingly felt across social classes.
Few deaths of public figures in Africa are openly attributed to HIV/AIDS, reflecting the deep stigma that continues to accompany the disease across the continent.
But signs are AIDS is taking its toll among politicians, just as it is with ordinary Africans.
In Malawi, a recent study showed that a total of 42 MPs have died between 1994 and 2006. In an official statement in 2000, the speaker of the national assembly attributed 28 of these deaths to AIDS-related causes, Chirambo said.
In neighbouring Zambia, in the 20-year period between independence in 1964 and the first reported AIDS case in 1984, only 14 out of 46 by-elections were held as a result of death. Between 1985 and 2003, 102 by-elections have been held and, of those, 39 were a result of officials dying in office.
Between 1994 and 2006, 23 vacancies have been recorded in the South African parliament as a result of death.
Alan Whiteside, director of health economics and the HIV/AIDS research division at the University of KwaZulu Natal, said [that] the new research showed [that] the pandemic is having a cumulative impact on Africa's institutions, but that many countries are not equipped to deal with it.
"HIV/AIDS is having an impact not just on electoral institutions, but also on government and governance, and we have underestimated this impact," Whiteside told Reuters in an interview.
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