The Mozambican Labour Ministry of Labour and the South African Mine Labour Recruitment Agency (TEBA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to enable the delayed payment of miners' wages to be paid via banks. The initiative aims to reduce the time of transfers and to increase accuracy and security in the management of the beneficiaries' wages.

According to Labour Minister Margarida Talapa, the first steps in changing payment methods were taken in April 2016 and culminated with the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Labour Ministry, the Bank of Mozambique, and TEBA. However, only two thousand out of the 18,800 Mozambican workers in the South African mines are receiving their wages via a bank account. According to Talapa, the remaining 15,800 miners continue to receive their wages in cash at the TEBA stations.

With the signing of the memorandum, according to the Minister, this scenario is definitively overcome and the transfer of the miners' wages will be faster and safer.

"We salute the group that worked hard in the revision of the memorandum of understanding that culminated with the signature that we are witnessing today that aims to safeguard the legitimate interests of the Mozambican workers in the mines", said Talapa on 27 August at the signing ceremony in Johannesburg.

Talapa added, "we will continue to assume our responsibilities to ensure that the rights of Mozambican miners are respected and fully complied with".

In total, there are about 21,000 Mozambican citizens officially working in South Africa - 18,800 in the mines and 3,058 on the farms. These figures, however, do not cover the informal sector of the South African economy.

In the first quarter of this year, the Migrant Labour Directorate in the Ministry (DTM) ensured the placement of 8,962 new workers in South Africa, of which 8,175 were in mines and 787 on farms.