News / National
SA govt called to stop exploitation of Zimbabwe domestic workers
21 Jan 2024 at 09:01hrs | Views
The Africa Diaspora Forum (ADF) says Zimbabwean domestic workers should be granted special permits because they work for South African families that cannot afford to pay the minimum wage.
The forum, which represents the interests of foreign nationals in the country, has called on the government to grant the permits to prevent further exploitation of foreign domestic workers.
ADF spokesperson Ngqabutho Mabhena elaborates, "You have a family whose income is R40 000, they are paying bond, there'll be vehicle instalments, there have relatives to support and what is left for them is an extra R3 000 that they can pay to a domestic worker. This domestic worker, because of their own condition in Zimbabwe, is willing to accept this R3 000 and this domestic worker is undocumented. What happens is that they then get more exploited in terms of the fact that they are given what is called stay-in; you stay at the workplace and work more than the 8 hours that are allocated; some work up to 15 hours a day."
The forum, which represents the interests of foreign nationals in the country, has called on the government to grant the permits to prevent further exploitation of foreign domestic workers.
ADF spokesperson Ngqabutho Mabhena elaborates, "You have a family whose income is R40 000, they are paying bond, there'll be vehicle instalments, there have relatives to support and what is left for them is an extra R3 000 that they can pay to a domestic worker. This domestic worker, because of their own condition in Zimbabwe, is willing to accept this R3 000 and this domestic worker is undocumented. What happens is that they then get more exploited in terms of the fact that they are given what is called stay-in; you stay at the workplace and work more than the 8 hours that are allocated; some work up to 15 hours a day."
Source - SABC
