Factory forced to move from Free State to Gauteng due to power outage

NLG Gloves staff were left upset on Wednesday when the company announced it would relocate to Carletonville in Gauteng due to unreliable power supply in Harrismith under the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality in the Free State. Photo: Tladi Moloi

• A glove factory in Tshiame, Harrismith, employing over 70 workers, has had to make the difficult decision to relocate to Carletonville, over three hours’ drive away, to save the business.
• This is due to the unreliable power supply in the municipality of Maluti-a-Phofung.
• A senior employee, who asked not to be named, said the company has said that employees who are willing to relocate or travel to the new location will be retained, but most have homes and families in the city and are unlikely to travel back and forth to a neighbouring province of Gauteng.

Businesses in Harrismith in the Free State are struggling to stay afloat as the Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality has suffered severe power outages in recent weeks.

As a result, a factory in Tshiame, which employs more than 70 workers, has had to make the difficult decision to relocate to a neighbouring province to save the business due to unreliable power supplies.

Last month GroundUp reported that villages in and around Harrismith, as well as the Maluti-a-Phofung Special Economic Zonewas without power for more than a week after thousands of gallons of oil were stolen from the Greenland substation in Tshiame. But many residents and business owners complained that power outages were frequent.

Although electricity has now been restored to most parts of the municipality, NLG Gloves employees were devastated on Wednesday when the company announced it would relocate to Carletonville in Gauteng.

The industrial glove factory has been operating in the Tshiame community since 1993, supplying nearby mines and employing 71 workers from surrounding communities.

A senior employee, who asked not to be named, told GroundUp that workers had left early that day because they were upset by the news. According to the employee, the company has said that those who are willing to relocate or travel to the new location will continue to be employed. But most of them have homes and families in the city and are unlikely to travel back and forth to Gauteng.

He said they were told the factory would close at the end of September.

“We have big machines that need electricity and every time there was no power we had to wait. Imagine if every time the customer needs orders we use electricity problems as an excuse, so it looks like we are failing,” he said.

Another worker, Malesedi Moloi, said: “I have been working for the company for 11 years. I am not willing to relocate because I am a mother of two children. If I leave, it means I will have to find someone to take care of me.” [my daughters] and that person needs to be paid.”

Thabo Kessah, spokesperson for the municipality, said it was “unfortunate that NLG Gloves is leaving at a time when the Distribution Agency Agreement (DAA) signed with Eskom is being implemented”.

According to Kessah, the agreement between the municipality and Eskom only recently came into effect, as Eskom and the municipality were in the process of setting up a Project Management Office that would deal with matters such as customer service and secondment of municipal staff.

The process to stabilise supply has already started at Kestell and will also commence at Harrismith and later at Qwaqwa in the coming days, Kessah said.

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