'Painful' working conditions at factory owned by Chinese nationals

A state witness has told the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) of the ‘painful’ and ‘difficult’ working conditions, he and his colleagues allegedly experienced at a Johannesburg factory owned by seven Chinese nationals accused of human trafficking. Matola Ndika was testifying in the trial against Kevin Tsao, Dai Junying, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao and Zhang Zhilian, reports News24. The accused face 160 charges, including human trafficking, kidnapping and the violation of labour laws. They have pleaded not guilty. Ndika told the court that at some point, he was assaulted and sworn at by some of the accused – something which he said ‘was painful’ to experience. He also claimed that one of the accused attacked him with his bare hands and had also witnessed one of his colleagues being beaten with a broom. Ndika also told the court that he arrived in SA from Malawi when he was 14-years-old, trying to run away from poverty. He said he came to SA on a taxi, with no passport. When he arrived, he was hired by one of the seven accused in Benoni and was paid R85 a day. He said he worked from 19:00 until 07:00. Ndika told the court that he was later transported in a container at the back of the truck to the accused's enterprise, called Beautiful City (Pty) Ltd in Village Deep, Johannesburg. He told the court that the factory paid him R65 a day – an amount which he said he could not negotiate. He also said the only time they were allowed to use the toilets was during lunchtime, and if they used them before the lunch hour, they risked losing R20 from their salary.