A CHINESE company, QING JIAN Group, that has been tendered to construct the 91km Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe road is embroiled is a series of sexual harassment scandals.

The reported harassment cases are predominant in Ha Ramatlali and Ha Ramatšeliso in Qacha’s Nek.

Upon completion, the road under construction will link the highlands of Qacha’s Nek, Thaba-Tseka and Mokhotlong with the lowlands and at the same time leads to the Sehlabathebe National Park.

Basotho female employees working for Qing Jian Group also known as CNQC are said to be sexually abused by their Chinese supervisors.

Some of these women even have children with the Oriental bosses.

The women have on several occasions lodged complaints about the harassment to police authorities but no measures have been taken to address the matter.

This was revealed by the Construction, Mining, Quarrying and Allied Workers (CMQ) during a media briefing on Wednesday.  

On top of that, the company is further being accused of violating the country’s labour laws, nepotism, discrimination as well as freedom of association among other things.

Workers are also reportedly being dismissed without following proper procedures.

“We have discovered that employees who include flag ladies, cleaners and those who serve food in the offices are being sexually harassed. This is total exploitation of employees. It does not align with any of the country’s labour laws and government is not doing anything about it.

“We do not have a problem with these Chinese, but at the same time they should not be allowed to do as they please,” CMQ General Secretary Robert Mokhahlane told the media briefing.

Last month, employees boycotted work because the company was failing to fulfill its promises.

Following the boycott, more than 75 employees were fired and completely locked out by the company.

Those who were allowed in were forced to sign new contracts while holding old contracts that were still up to date.

The group that was locked out, CMQ says was tortured by police and soldiers even though they were not causing any problems.

The association says some were arrested and the company hired a new group of 50 Chinese employees to feel the gap left by their sacked colleagues.

CMQ wrote to the government asking it to intervene but to no avail. “We also requested the Roads Directorate to intervene but nothing happened. We further asked the Ministry of Public Works for help but still nothing was done about this.