The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has raised concerns that Chinese constructors classified themselves as South African companies when competing for lucrative construction tenders.
This was revealed in a mine, construction, metal and energy workers union’s secretariat report, which was not presented at the union congress that took place from last Tuesday until Thursday, which Sunday World has seen.
“We are concerned that in the civil engineering sector there is an emerging trend of Chinese construction companies that are competing for tenders as South African companies,” said NUM secretary-general Mpho Phakedi in the report.
“What is amazing also is that they are even graded by Construction Industry Development Board as South African companies. They are not classified as foreign companies, yet they receive subsidies from their Chinese government to dominate the industry.”
The report added that the construction industry was growing but not at the rate expected following the government’s commitment to spend R1-trillion over the next three years on public infrastructure as a show of its commitment to driving economic growth.
“The growth from June 2024 to date is only 1%. The Reserve bank is estimating growth of 3.1% in the next three years.
“We stand at a critical juncture, where both our achievements and our struggles speak to the resilience and unity of our membership, as well as to the evolving realities of the NUM sectors.
“However, the number of workers in our sectors has seen a gradual decline due to mechanisation, job cuts, contractors and increased automation. These changes present a challenge for our union as we continue to organise new workers and protect existing jobs,” wrote Phakedi.
Phakedi added that the restructuring that had been happening in the mining sector was having a negative reciprocal effect in the civil engineering sector.
“This negative trend is experienced through non-renewals of contracts by the mining companies. For example, the Murray & Roberts cementation contract was not renewed by Venetia Diamond mine. The same as Moolman contract in Highveld was not renewed by Seriti Coal mine.”
Phakedi said this after the union membership declined to 175 666 in 2024 from 177 096 in 2023. He explained that the mining sector represented 76% of NUM’s membership. “This is followed by construction which contributes 11% of NUM’s total membership, energy contributing 10%, and metal, which contributes 3% between the year 2022 and 2024. The sectors that experienced membership growth are construction, energy and metal. The mining sector is the only sector which experienced membership decline, by 2%.”
The report also showed that 44% of the union membership were workers aged between 35 and 50, which is the majority, while 14% of the membership were workers aged below 35.
The biggest employer contributor in terms of membership was Harmony Gold, followed by Eskom and Sibanye-Stillwater.
