Former Bosasa workers march to the Master’s Office in Johannesburg, calling for answers over money they say remains outstanding years after the company entered liquidation. (Supplied)
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More than 4,500 former employees of Bosasa, now African Global Operations, say they’ve been left struggling for years as they wait for outstanding salaries, retrenchment benefits and other payments following the company’s liquidation in 2019.
The plight of the former employees has come under the spotlight after a high court two weeks ago ordered liqudators to submit financial records relating to Bosasa and entities linked to it, including bank statements, financial statements, trust deeds, meeting minutes, distribution records and share certificates.
The court wants those documents to examine how money, assets and distributions were handled between 2008 and 2021, including money involving the Bosasa Employees Trust and Gavin Watson Family Trust.
For the former employees, the long wait to be paid has taken a toll on them.
William Mokoena said he joined the company in 2010 as a driver at one of its mining subsidiaries and has spent years trying to find out when he’d receive money he believed he was owed.
“We went to the Master of the high court, constantly submitting and signing papers. They never told us what was going to happen; we only knew that we were supposed to get our funds,” he said.
Mokoena said it was only in 2025 that Sanlam began contacting some former employees about signing documents linked to payments. “Sanlam told us that three months after signing the papers we would get our money, but they kept wanting more documents signed,” he said.
He said some former colleagues recently received payments, although the amounts varied. “It was this past week when some colleagues in the Eastern Cape said they received some funds, which they called surplus, but some of us didn’t get it,” he said.
“Others got R1,000, another said R800 and another R2,000. Others got the money recently, and others got this money long ago.”
Mokoena said he had received about R200,000 from his provident fund and UIF when the company closed but said this had not been enough to rebuild his life. “This has completely destroyed me in my spirit because I have two kids who are [at] university… Even NSFAS is not enough,” he said.
At the time he lost his job, Mokoena had already started building a home for his late wife, who died in 2018.
The house remains unfinished. “I have 12 kids who rely on me as their breadwinner. I have to go back home to Limpopo to take care of the home. I’m old and can’t work anymore. What am I going to eat? They have my money.”
Rabelani Masindi, who worked at Bosasa’s youth detention centres, said former workers had been failed by those who should have assisted them. “We were failed by the Master of the high court, the liquidator and also the trade unions. They were there, but they failed to assist us,” he said.
Masindi said the financial strain had affected the health and wellbeing of former colleagues. “Some of our colleagues have even passed, some having [died by suicide] and no one can represent those families,” he said.
“Others are sick because of the working conditions they endured; they can’t even afford medical bills and maybe, if they had gotten their funds, they’d be able to live.”
Former workers Dumsani Mnguni and Lesedi Motshabi said they were dismissed while working in correctional facilities under risky conditions.
Mnguni said the loss of his income had affected his family. “At the moment, my woman is gone with the children. I’m staying in a shack. I can’t even afford to buy myself food.”
He said years of unemployment had left him struggling to rebuild his life. “You don’t have anything. Phones are breaking, everything is broken, guys. I’m broke. I don’t want to prolong this, but they’ve destroyed us. Those people have destroyed us from the inside.”
Mnguni said former workers spent years asking to be absorbed into the correctional services so they could earn an income and support their families.
Motshabi said losing his job forced him to sell a stand he had purchased while employed. “I had bought a stand in the township, and I was forced to sell it because I didn’t have any income. I bought the stand at R10,000, and I sold it for R20,000,” he said.
He eventually moved back to Brits in North West and spent years without stable employment. “I sat for five years at home with no job and only got something in 2023 to support my family,” he said.
Sanlam confirmed that payments were being processed for eligible members of the African Global Operations Provident Fund.
The financial services company said 187 claims were processed, with about R342,000 distributed, while 1,004 members remain eligible for about R2.1m in outstanding benefits.
Meanwhile, Jared Watson, acting on behalf of the late Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson’s estate, has disputed aspects of the liquidation process and raised concerns about the sale of company assets and about liquidators’ fees.