Ibhayi Workers Forum demonstrated outside Dormac in Markman industrial area

About 60 members of the Ibhayi Workers Forum protested outside marine and offshore engineering firm Dormac in the Markman Industrial area, Gqeberha, on Thursday.

"All these people are unemployed and had high hopes of getting hired when the company opened last year," said Mzimkulu Piliso, a forum leader. "Some even went through the process of interviewing and were promised jobs, but they are still in the cold."

He said Dormac had brought in unskilled workers from Durban, where the company had relocated from last year.

Tabitha Mati, of Wells Estate, said, "I worked for Dormac as a cleaner in 2019 before the company went away, only to come back in 2024 ... I was working on short contracts, though they promised most workers that they would be given preference when the company is back. But we are now left in the lurch."

Mati and her two children have had to depend on social grants.

Also protesting was Kwanele Kusela, a qualified boilermaker. He said he had passed all the job requirements and had even been told he would start work in December and had signed a contract. "Then boom! There comes the silence and the snub ... They brought their own people to undermine us here," he said.

A memo was handed to a Dormac representative. It demands Dormac fill 80% of unskilled jobs with local workers and it provide proof of compliance. It also criticises what the forum claims are unfair labour practices at the company. If the company did not respond, the forum will lobby government to block the company from getting tenders in Gqeberha.

Carina Niemandt, human resources manager for Dormac, told GroundUp the company will first study the petition before giving a response.