Mutiny on the flagship

‘SLAAN my dood met ‘n tien pond hamer!’

With reference to your article of 11 April on Felixton sugar mill workers downing tools in protest against their General Manager.

Something fishy appears to be still going on at Tongaat-Hulett Sugar (THS) Felixton (the ‘flagship’) so many years after attempts to seriously restructure their management style.

The reform drive, so-called ‘Organisational Transformation’ (OT), was launched by the then Managing Director Bruce Dunlop in 1996.

It was to take three to five years to fully implement, meaning completion by 2001 at the latest.

The rationale for OT (renamed ‘Business Transformation’ (BT) in 1998) was, in the MD’s words, ‘to change the management style and climate… a need to do things differently to survive into the future and compete globally… a chance to do things better’.

I write from first-hand experience with THS.

In 2001, somewhat BT overzealous, I as a production middle manager at Felixton was fired following a rushed and farcical disciplinary enquiry for being ‘incompatible with senior management’.

Apparently I was seen as a threat to their cosy world as I was branded an ‘unbalanced socialist dysfunctional’ for repeatedly speaking up for my subordinates’ right to fair treatment.

I was informed at an inquiry by a general manager chairman, ‘You will never find another job in sugar!’. This after 17 years of value-adding service which at least in financial terms can be easily proved from the Sugar Milling Research Institute’s industry performance data before and after.

So what’s changed over the years? Was BT ever realised?

Apparently not. Is it true that a fish rots from the head?

STEVE JARDINE