Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa is set to retrench 680 workers as it is restructuring due to financial constraints.
The beverages giant will also shut down its plants in East London in the Eastern Cape and Bloemfontein in Free State.
Meanwhile, the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu), which represents most of the workers, has vowed to challenge the proposed job cuts.
The union’s deputy general-secretary Edwin Mabowa Coca-Cola of going behind its back in an attempt to negotiate directly with workers.
Mabowa said that before they can even have their first meeting with the CCMA, the company is going behind their backs and consulting with the employees individually or otherwise to an extent that they are telling them [union] that the first phase and the second phase is completed.
“According to the union, there is no first and second phase. The company served us with the notice, which was coupled with an application to the CCMA, which is commencing on the 19th of September 2025, this Friday,” Mabowa told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
The looming job cuts come amid an exodus of international companies who have also cited financial constraints.
Earlier this year, tyre manufacturing company Goodyear shut down its plant in Kariega in the Eastern Cape, which has the highest provincial unemployment rate.
The company had been operating in South Africa for 78 years and employed around 900 people.
Similarly, over 900 jobs are reportedly at risk at the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer in South Africa, Aspen Pharmacare. The company has already retrenched over 100 workers in 2025.
In September this year, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) also announced plans to retrench nearly 500 workers across its manufacturing operations in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape and Silverton in Gauteng.
