EWN reports that a team of fire and rescue officers had to be roped in on Tuesday to assist in inspecting an underground tunnel at a factory believed to be used for the escape of undocumented foreign nationals.

The tunnel was discovered at Vientiane PVC Ceilings and Pipes in Vereeniging. A large group of employees are said to have run into the underground tunnel and escaped when law enforcement agents arrived for an inspection.   Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Jomo Sibiya, led the operation at the company, believed to be using cheap labour. Inspectors found two registers for employees at the factory, one for South Africans and the other for foreign nationals. Records show the company owes over R400,000 in Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contributions. While its annual submission of return earnings should have been R3 million, the company dishonestly cited a figure of only R140,000.

• Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Jabulile Mbatha at EWN

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