Death toll, prostitution soar in Tole after Gov’t scam

Grace Kindeh, aka Mami STV, one of the former workers of the Cameroon Tea Estates, CTE, says constant death, rampant school dropout and an alarming rate of prostitution have become daily companions to former CTE workers after their retrenchment.

“We die every day because we cannot afford hospital bills; our children no longer go to school because of fees, prostitution and stealing have surged in Tole, because, our Government decided to sell us off to Alhadji Baba Danpullo, claiming that it was BROBON FINEX PTY Company from South Africa.

If a Government can decide to enslave its own citizens and steal from them, then, such a Government is an evil Government,” she said.

Kindeh, who worked with the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, for 21 years before the privatisation of the company and their subsequent retrenchment, said most of the workers have given up hope and are only waiting for God’s call to eternity.

The woman, who is in her late 60s, lives in an appalling state in a one room plank building together with her four children and three grandchildren. Even at her advanced age, Mami STV, as she is fondly called, must till the soil from sun rise to sun set not only to fend for herself, children and grandchildren, but also to pay the monthly rent for her one room hovel.

The mother of four bemoaned that things were a little better off under the CDC, as they enjoyed free accommodation, electricity, water and relatively free medical services, before they were sold off.

Kindeh’s plight is just a microcosm of the plights of the over 700 former CTE workers, who were laid-off following the privatisation of the company in 2002.

The workers were outwitted by Government that the tea plantation has been privatised to a South African company, BROBON FINEX PTY, even though the workers had requested that Government should settle them before handing them over to their new employer, to no avail.

The symptoms of the apparent Government scam began manifesting four years after the privatisation. The workers were arbitrary laid-off without benefits, slashed wages, accrued leave dues since 2003, horrible sanitary conditions, no electricity in their camp huts, unpaid family allowances while the rates were deducted from their miserable salaries every month, cancelled health services, incommensurate remuneration and numerous other hardships.

On January 6, 2006, the over 700 workers took to the streets, mounting road barricades to prevent Sasse and Bishop Rogan students, who they considered as ‘big people’s children’ from returning to school, since they were no signs that their own children will go back to school.

In the wake of the strike action, the then Senior Divisional Officer of Fako, SDO, Bernard Okalia Bilai, and Mayor of Buea, Charles Mbella Moki, jointly addressed the workers on April 10, 2006, promising them part payment of their accrued leave dues, but the workers wanted the total dues owed them.

Promises after promises were made by different Government officials across the administrative spectrum for the payment of the workers dues and the workers were coaxed to call off their strike action and resumed work.

Five years rolled on and there was no sign of Government honouring its promises to the workers. On September 12, 2011, the workers again rallied and besieged the Southwest Regional Delegation of Labour and Social Security for six months.

Their move sent the Labour Minister rushing to the Southwest Region. Again, promises were made to the striking workers and an Adhoc Committee set to calculate and process the payment documents of the workers.

From 2011 till date, the work of the Adhoc Committee seems to have ended up in the Yaounde trash cans, as the workers continue to die out of frustration and torment from Government, their children no longer go to school and prostitution continues to rise as children are made mothers on daily basis.