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11 April 2005

The Labour Department’s long standing pursuit of sound relations with workers and employers was further evidenced today with Minister Mdladlana’s high profile visit of the Volkswagen car manufacturing plant in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.

Minister Mdladlana’s visit formed part of the final day of his highly successful weeklong Imbizo tour of the province during which he had met with different areas and inspected various job creation and skills training projects.

Accompanied by senior Department officials and ANC MP and former trade union leader John Gomomo who used to be a Volkswagen employee, the minister toured the plant and inspected the company’s skills training facilities run jointly with public and private sector partnerships under the Uitenhage Dispatch Development Initiative.

The project has produced more than 4 000 jobs, with graduates having been placed in 44 different companies over the past four years, and aims to create more than 8 000 jobs by 2008.

Minister Mdladlana commended the occupational health and safety programmes, which the company runs jointly with organised, labour representatives.

He stressed the importance of employers and workers forming health and safety committees since it was impossible for the Department’s inspectors to visit every workplace simultaneously, policing compliance.

Minister Mdladlana also said he was impressed by the company’s Employment Equity structure.

He also visited the regional Skills Pool Centre, a vocational training project, which was established in 2003 and empowers young unemployed people with basic engineering and mechanical skills, including rigging, fitting, electricity, and welding.

Minister Mdladlana followed his tour of the province with the inspection of the Compensation Fund Centre in Port Elizabeth before paying a courtesy visit of the Nelson Mandela Metropole’s Executive mayor Nceba Faku.

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Issued by: Department of Labour
11 April 2005