What can I do about witnessing workplace racism?
I work at a company in Bloemfontein, surprise they're racist.
I unfortunately have no proof of these incidents but my conscience is eating at me so I just need to let it out. So the company is split into the office and the factory, general workers make up the majority of employees and they are people of colour. The office only consists of white people (except for the cleaner).
The biggest issue I have seen is a few months ago when one of the general workers lost his young baby to birth complications, a lady in the office had a similar experience early last year. She got to work a whole year from home to cope with the grief, the worker however only got his three days compassionate leave. This is unfair in so many ways but what I want to focus most on is the fact that he asked for more time to arrange the funeral, insurance etc. They told him he needs to come into work or else it will be unpaid leave (as he did not have annual leave at this time). I feel this is just beyond disgusting given that they gave another woman a whole year to work from her home after she had her 3 days compassion leave. Yes I understand the worker can't do his job from home but for fuck's sake would it damage the company that much just to give a few extra days paid leave?
In multiple instances workers of colour were denied sick leave, they were within the 2 days grace period, if they didn't produce a sick note. As much as I tried on my part to motivate the men to argue with this decision they're all afraid of management. This company has a notorious reputation for getting any dirt they can on you to get you fired.
Lastly and the one that hurt my heart the most, the cleaner bought birthday cake and Coca Cola for the office personnel on HER birthday to celebrate with everyone. The cake she brought was pushed aside, no one ate from it and hushed giggles and whispers were heard in reference to it. Saying they're scared they'll get sick if they eat it and it can't possibly be clean. (If anyone who works there sees this they'll know immediately it's about them). p.s. I know about this because she overheard some of these comments while cleaning in the office, they obviously think she's too dumb to understand what's happening.
I don't know how i can combat this issue and unfortunately I'm one of the back of house workers so I'm nowhere near management to bring up this issue and because of that I don't have any relevant information to produce to CCMA.
I feel lost and like a traitor because I see these things happening but I can't possibly say anything, so I'm turning to this community to hopefully get more ideas on how I can go about documenting future instances.