Labour Department Responds to EFF’s Restaurant Inspections, Blames Limited Resources

• The Department of Employment and Labour has responded to the Economic Freedom Fighters conducting employment inspections at restaurants
• The department condemns the party's inspections as they feel they overstepped their mandate by taking unsanctioned action
• The party visited several restaurants at the Mall of Africa to inspect if they are adhering to labour laws and how many foreigners they are employing

JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Employment and Labour had responded to an incident yesterday (20 January) when the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) visited several restaurants at the Mall of Africa to inspect if they are adhering to labour laws and how many foreigners they are employing.

"Inspection of companies for whatever purpose is the work of officials of government. It's like going to a police station and taking over their duties," the department said.

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The department's justification for not conducting their own inspections

Sabelo Mali, a departmental spokesperson, said that the department condemns the EFF's inspections as they feel they overstepped their mandate by taking unsanctioned action, News24 reports.

Thembinkosi Mkalipi, the Chief Director for Labour Relations, said that the department would be conducting inspections similar to those carried out by the EFF, but their limited capacity and lack of resources are inhibiting them from achieving this goal.

According to SABC News, Mkalipi said that people must not conduct their own inspections of workplaces, but rather direct concerns to the department, who will investigate these matters on a case-by-case basis.

Reactions to the labour department's response

@inopinus believes:

"Dept of Labour must start doing their jobs & inspect company employment policies AND enforce existing Labour Laws."

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Julius Malema's restaurant inspections condemned by Labour Department, South Africans think It was a total flop

@ALETTAHA remarked:

"And here comes the blind, trying to lead the blind."

@sekgari asked:

"What are you going to do about it? What will you do when they do it again?"

@lkmalele said:

"With such high unemployment in SA its hard to believe we have the whole department that's dedicated to Labour and Employment."

@MkhataleMzamani shared:

"I almost forgot that we do have a department of labour in our country. Very quiet to a point that the EFF overtook them."

Malema says EFF will be checking employment ratios in other industries too

In earlier news about this incident, Briefly News reported that Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, says his party plans to conduct even more employment ratio checks.

Malema and his party members raised a few eyebrows on Wednesday, 19 January when they headed to the Mall of Africa to inspect how many South Africans were hired at restaurants in comparison to foreign nationals.

The negative feedback the unauthorised inspections garnered seems to have not deterred the party from invading other industries to check if they are unfairly discriminating against locals.

Source: Briefly News