Today, the 09 June 2025, the leadership of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), led by the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, joined the leadership of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) as it engaged the leadership of Sout African Breweries (SAB) led by the CEO, Richard Rivett‑Carnac.
Mr Richard Rivett‑Carnac defended the company’s decision to retrench workers. Following the engagement, he agreed that the retrenchment process must be put on hold for further talks. This we welcome, and we look forward to further productive discussions. We are more than convinced that there are alternatives to massive jobs losses that have lasted for far too long.
SAFTU expressed its strongest condemnation of the sustained assault on workers by SAB under the control of multinational conglomerate AB InBev. The situation at SAB is not an isolated case of corporate restructuring—it is a deliberate, systematic war on jobs, transformation, and the constitutional rights of workers.
The pattern that has unfolded since AB InBev’s takeover in 2016 is now undeniable: annual job cuts, outsourcing to low-wage foreign contractors, reversal of transformation commitments, and weakening of internal labour justice systems. It is a textbook example of what happens when mergers are approved without stringent, enforceable public interest protections—and when profit takes precedence over people.
A SYSTEMATIC PATTERN OF RETRENCHMENTS
Since 2020, SAB has embarked on seven waves of job cuts:
- 2020: 330 workers retrenched under Section 189.
- 2021: A further 40 workers dismissed.
- 2022: 160 retrenchments followed by a Section 197 outsourcing of distribution and shunting to foreign firms—FADEL (Brazil) and Nepomuceno (Paraguay).
- 2023: 150 more workers dismissed.
- February 2024: 64 forced retrenchments and 100 voluntary exits.
- May 2025: A new Section 189A notice issued targeting 233 warehouse employees across the country.
In total, over 1,000 jobs have been eliminated within just six years. This is not restructuring—it is a corporate strategy of deliberate job destruction.
PROFITS UP, JOBS DOWN
SAB and AB InBev have repeatedly cited “global alignment” and “operational efficiency” to justify their actions. Yet the financial data paints a different picture:
- AB InBev’s global net profits rose to US$9.2 billion in 2022 and remained well above pre-merger levels in 2023 and 2024.
- This while workers were losing jobs, contractors were replacing full-time staff, and medical aid and retirement benefits were being stripped from the outsourced workforce.
This proves that the cuts are not driven by necessity—but by profit maximisation. Corporate greed is being prioritised over constitutional rights and social justice.
TRANSFORMATION IN REVERSE
SAB’s leadership structure has been reshaped to favour foreign nationals at senior and executive levels, including directors from Brazil, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Europe. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of retrenched and dismissed workers have been black South Africans.
The company has also adopted a written-submission-only disciplinary process since 2023—stripping workers of their right to a fair hearing. The result?
- Dismissals doubled from 27 to over 70 per year.
- 99.9% of those dismissed were black, blue-collar workers.
This constitutes a dangerous erosion of justice and procedural fairness in the workplace.
WRITTEN DISCIPLINARY PROCESS – A NATIONAL THREAT TO WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Even more dangerously, the same written-submission disciplinary model is now being proposed nationally through NEDLAC negotiations—the multi-stakeholder forum involving government, business, and labour.
While some federations have supported this move, SAFTU has rejected it outright. We regard this proposal as:
- A fundamental attack on workers’ constitutional right to fair labour practices,
- A rollback of hard-won democratic rights,
- A gateway to mass, silent dismissals without recourse.
SAFTU is now mobilising nationally against this measure, and will resist any attempt to formalise this attack in law or practice.
FAILED EMPOWERMENT THROUGH OWNER-DRIVER SCHEME
We also note the collapse of SAB’s much-publicised BBBEE owner-driver program. While it was initially presented as a model of black empowerment, the reality was far more exploitative:
- Many drivers were assigned unprofitable areas.
- They took on massive truck financing debt with little security.
- Some lost their vehicles, homes—and even their lives.
Empowerment must never be a code word for shifting risk onto workers while protecting corporate profit. The dismantling of this scheme in 2022 in favour of foreign firms reveals the true intent: replace community empowerment with offshore contracting.
MERGER FRAMEWORK FAILURE
The SAB case must be seen in the broader context of the Competition Commission’s ongoing approval of mergers that weaken public interest outcomes:
- Of 59 mergers approved between early 2024 and mid-2025, 24 included no public interest conditions.
- Examples like Vumatel/Herotel and ADNOC/Covestro proceeded without safeguards.
- Only a few mergers—such as Canal+/MultiChoice and Wilec transformer business—included worker or HDP protections.
The merger regime is failing to prevent outsourcing, transformation regression, and wage suppression.
SAFTU DEMANDS:
- Immediate suspension of all retrenchments and outsourcing at SAB, including the May 2025 process.
- An urgent Competition Commission investigation into AB InBev’s violations of its 2016 merger conditions.
- A national public audit of all large mergers approved since 2016, with full disclosure of:
- Job creation or destruction
- Profit repatriation vs. local reinvestment
- Transformation delivery
- Legally binding public-interest clauses in all mergers, including:
- No retrenchment guarantees
- Worker share ownership
- HDP procurement quotas
- Transformation targets
- Full rejection of the written-submission-only disciplinary model and defence of all workers’ constitutional labour rights.
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
SAB’s case is a warning: South Africa’s economy is being hollowed out—by foreign monopolies, disempowerment, and weak institutions. What’s happening at SAB today will happen everywhere tomorrow if workers and communities do not rise.
SAFTU will lead that resistance. We will not accept this new apartheid of capital and silence. We fight for a worker-led economy rooted in justice, democracy, and dignity.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For more details, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
066 168 2157
Newtonm@saftu.org.za
