Eskom and Vodacom DON'T employ thousands of Zimba...

Eskom and Vodacom DON'T employ thousands of Zimbabweans-Africa Check

Thousands of Twitter users have fallen for fake news claiming thousands of Zimbabweans are employed by various SA state owned companies.

Thousands of migrants have jobs in Eskom, Vodacom and South Africa’s government? No, viral message plain wrong

Harmful rumours about migrants from other African countries get attention on social media in South Africa. One recent claim about the jobs they hold is wildly inflated.

The claims

Eskom: over 1000 Zimbabwean employees.

Vodacom: over 5000 Zimbabwean employees.

Government Departments: over 10,000 foreign nationals.

Reality

Eskom employs less than 156 Zimbabwean nationals

Vodacom employs less than 71.

Of the 1,162,199 employees in South Africa’s government, 3,420 are foreign nationals.

“The level of hate the SA government has for its citizens is not surprising.”

That’s the final sentence in a much copied and pasted message circulating on social media in South Africa in September 2022.

The message seems to come from a tweet posted on 3 September, which has attracted thousands of reactions. Its first three sentences claim to give evidence for this “hate”:

Africa Check did some digging:

Claim

Eskom employs over 1,000 Zimbabweans

Verdict

Incorrect

Eskom is a state-owned company that produces much of the country’s electricity. The latest available employment data indicates that in the 2020/21 financial year, the company had 43,137 employees.

This figure comes from employment equity (EE) reports on Eskom’s three main bodies - Eskom Holdings SOC Limited, Eskom Finance Company and Eskom Rotek Industries.

EE reports are publicly available and submitted by businesses to the Department of Employment and Labour every year. Companies in South Africa are required to report numbers and demographics of their employees in line with the Employment Equity Act.

When added up, the total number of foreign nationals employed by all Eskom bodies is 156. As a percentage of the total number of employees, foreign nationals make up just 0.36% of Eskom’s employees.

The report does not break down the number of foreign nationals by citizenship, so the exact number of Zimbabweans employed by Eskom is not known. But we do know the number would be smaller than 156 – a lot less than the 1,000 claimed in the viral message.

Claim

Vodacom employs over 5,000 Zimbabweans

Verdict

Incorrect

Vodacom is one of South Africa’s largest mobile and data companies. According to the latest available data from Vodacom Group’s employment equity report, as of 2020/21 the company employed 4,991 people in South Africa. Of these, 71 were not South African citizens.

The employment report does not break this number down by nationality. But Vodacom spokesperson Byron Kennedy told Africa Check that the company employs “less than 50 people that are Zimbabwean nationals”.

This is in stark contrast to the message, which claims that Vodacom has more than 5,000 Zimbabwean employees. This number is larger than 4,991, the total number of people the company employs in South Africa.

Claim

Over 10,000 foreign nationals are employed in South African government departments

Verdict

Incorrect

Statistics for the number of employees in South Africa’s government can be found in the Commission for Employment Equity’s 2021/22 annual report. According to the report, employees in local, provincial and national government add up to a total of 1,162,199 people. Of these, 3,420 are foreign nationals.

We asked government spokesperson Phumla Williams about the numbers. She said that according to the Department of Public Service and Administration, the total number of foreign nationals in public service at provincial and national government was 1,901.

Taking the larger number of 3,420 across all levels of government, the viral claim overestimates the number by around two thirds.

https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/thousands-migrants-have-jobs-eskom-vodacom-and-south-africas-government-no