Kea' Modimoeng

Kea' Modimoeng

The use of labour brokers in South Africa will soon be a thing of the past. This is according to recent developments in the labour industry as well as the affirmation by Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana.

Speaking at the Nedlac Summit last week, Mdladlana made reference to a newspaper article which reported that the Namibian government won a court case to outlaw labour brokers. "Next year is going to be an exciting year because of this issue (banning of labour brokers). I have demanded the court papers from Namibia."

According to the minister, labour brokers are not doing workers a service because people employed by them have no pensions and no benefits - in the end they are just dumped.

Marius Coleman, chief executive of Origin Consulting, said: "There are corrupt people everywhere, even in government and we also have them in our industry."

Legitimate labour brokers are very keen to clean up the bad image created.

Coleman said labour brokers provided a stable and productive workforce and this was one of the reasons why many companies with a lack of human resource expertise used them.

The ban of labour brokers is expected to happen next year after the general elections.