Maputo — The Mozambican Labour Ministry has authorized the reopening of two companies whose activities had been suspended for serious violations of the country's labour legislation.

One is Golden Fields, a company set up in the southern district of Moamba to grow roses for export. The Mozambican media, notably the private television station STV, exposed the atrocious conditions under which the Golden Fields workers were living, thus causing severe embarrassment to its owners, who include former Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao, and his wife Josefina.

The General Inspectorate of Labour has allowed the company to resume operations, following an inspection on 26 February which confirmed that Golden Fields is now complying with the minimum standards required under the Labour Law.

The company now has a borehole providing clean drinking water for its workers (who had previously been obliged to take their water straight from the nearby Incomati river). It has installed mobile toilets that will be used during the construction of the greenhouses, and a company health post is being built, that will provide first aid.

Golden Fields will no longer be obliged to provide housing for its workers, since it has sub-contracted another company to deal with human resource issues. In future, the workers will not live on the Golden Fields premises (one of the major complaints last year was that the workers were promised housing, but when they arrived in Moamba, they found they had to erect their own tents out of old sacking).

The 100 or so workers who had been recruited from Manica and Tete provinces have all gone home and have been compensated. If they wish, and if the company needs them, they may return on an individual basis, with new contracts.

The second company allowed to resume its activities is the Mozambique Fertiliser Company (MFC), located in Gondola, in Manica. The Labour Ministry had slapped an embargo on this company because of 22 violations of the labour law - including lack of adequate work clothes and protective equipment, the absence of written work contracts, and the company's failure to take out insurance against accidents at work. In addition, there were no fixed working hours, the wages were not fixed, and the company could not even show the labour inspectors a list of the workers it employed.

The suspension was lifted on 21 February because, according to the Manica Provincial Director of Labour, Mouzinho Carlos, "the company has shown that it is willing to improve the conditions of its workers. It has at least complied with basic recommendations from the inspection".

But, according to an investigation by the independent weekly "Savana", MFC has only corrected six of the 22 violations noted by the inspectors. It has drawn up a proper list of the workforce, it has fixed the hours for each shift, it has agreed to pay the workers overtime, and it has provided them with adequate clothing and protective equipment. It is also submitting the workers to medical check-ups.

The labour inspectors are not demanding that MFC correct anything else before resuming operations. Carlos told "Savana" that the company "will improve the rest, as it operates". The company was also fined 175,000 meticais (about 7,250 US dollars). So far it has paid 149,000 meticais.

But when a "Savana" reporter visited the former railway warehouse where MFC operates, he found that nothing had changed in the conditions under which the workers handle the fertilizers. They are exposed to chemical dust that causes irritation to the eyes and throat. The factory is still not properly paved - which means that the workers, barefoot or wearing sandals, are continually treading through a potentially dangerous mixture of mud and chemicals.

"Savana" also discovered that the company disobeyed the January order to suspend its activities. It continued to work clandestinely at night, with workers on a ten hour shift (20.00 to 06.00).

Carlos told "Savana" that MFC had only been authorized to unload raw materials. "Because it had goods to receive, the company asked only to unload the trucks bringing the materials, and this happened in the presence of inspectors", he said

But he admitted there could have been unauthorized work at night, since MFC "might have taken advantage of our weaknesses".

The majority shareholder in MFC is a Seychelles registered company, Avignon Holdings. AIM has not yet been able to discover who owns Avignon. The MFC administrator is a former state security agent named Zeca Esmael.

When "Savana" approached him on Wednesday, he said that the company was fully operational and "all the irregularities have been corrected. I don't know where you get your information from. Let us work in peace".

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