A government tea project in the Eastern Cape is a disaster, according to provincial authorities. Magwa, the largest tea estate in Lusikisiki, remains under business rescue. It’s been plagued by years of mismanagement and allegations of plundering and corruption.
While government’s injected about R100-million into it, thousands of employees were not paid for nearly a year. Dubbed one of the largest tea estates in Southern Hemisphere and wholly-owned by the government Magwa was once thriving.
But the workers on the estate have worked for 11 months without pay. Provincial authorities concede the project has been a disaster. Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said the project talks directly to the poorest of the poor.
We are not going to allow it to collapse again because it’s huge here. Some employees said they were only paid half of their salaries, a claim authorities deny. Zolile Dlamini, another Magwa employee, said the government still owes another 15 months’ salary.
Eastern Cape Rural Development MEC, Nomakhosazana Meth, disputed this, saying: “We could not pay them for the past 12 months before we intervened and we asked them hang on a bit
“We must focus on reviving this estate. And now that we can see it is moving forward, we have paid even that 12 months that we were owing. We owe them nothing.” Authorities want to diversity the core business of the struggling tea estate by developing an agri-tourism belt.
In other news – Romeo and Xolile finally have their wedding #RomeoWedsXolile #etvScandal
Scandal fans finally had something to celebrate – one of the show’s favourite couples tied the knot – Xolile and especially Romeo have been waiting for their big day for ages – The show’s viewers expressed their happiness at seeing the two walk down the aisle.
After the longest time, Romeo and Xolile, the ‘star-crossed lovers’ of Scandal, got to say ‘I do’ and have their happy ending (at least for now). Read more
Source: eNCA
