Reuters reports that about a hundred workers from trade union Solidarity staged a brief protest outside Sasol’s chemicals plant in Sasolburg on Wednesday over a share scheme offered exclusively to black staff.  

Union leaders, who said the scheme was discriminatory because it excluded white workers, handed over a memorandum criticising the plan to Sasol’s managers, cheered on by workers.  The workers wore orange caps and some of them waved placards with slogans such as “Shame on you Sasol” and “Swart en Wit is Waardig” (“Black and White are worthy”).  The lunch time protest lasted for about an hour.  The union’s 6,300 members began a go-slow at the company on Monday and plan to hold a full strike on Thursday.  Sasol, which employs around 26,000 people in SA, said it had made contingency plans.  Company spokesman Alex Anderson noted that the Sasolburg plant was undergoing a scheduled maintenance shutdown and added:  “There were no interruptions.  Operations continued as normal.”

• Read this report by Siphiwe Sibeko in full at Moneyweb

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