Read on Twitter
South Africa has over 1 million domestic workers. 91% of these are black women, 9% are coloured women. 79% are breadwinners in their homes. 50% support 4 or more people financially. 62% are not registered with the UIF. 85% do not receive paid leave. Continues...
There are about 55000 children under the age of 15 working as domestic workers in South Africa, with many women working until the age of 75.
One employer, a married doctor and mother of four from an elite suburb in Durban, described her bond with her domestic worker — who receives R2000 a month for 84 hour workweeks — as follows:
"She is part of our family. We take care of her, her mother worked for us. She gets all the old clothes, she eats all the leftovers and she has a bed and her own room. When we bought new TV we put the old one in her room. She will do anything for this family...
...we can wake her up at midnight and ask her to prepare a meal and she does it with a smile on her face."
So basically, she views her worker’s position as a matter of destiny and belonging. Like her mother, she serves them with a smile (so upward generational mobility isn’t necessary either) and is rewarded with a fabricated form of kinship (rather than actual benefits).
This is what the employee has to say: "When my mum retired they gave her R 10,000 which was in 2006 she worked for doctor’s mother for thirty-two years. Is that how you treat your family? They pay me R2000 a month. What can you buy for R2000 a month? I work like a slave."
"I am telling you, seven days a week. When I want time off they make me feel bad. Sometime they give me an extra R 100. I see doctor; she spends more than R2000 on a pair of shoes. I am not their family I work here if I had some — where else to work for more money I would go...
True they feed me. I am not hungry here. I got a nice place to stay, but I am always tired".
For generations, the master-servant relationship has been the main meeting point for blacks and whites. The country was built with the expectation that the average middle-class white family would have live-in servants....
... Many otherwise modest, three-bedroom homes in the suburbs include maid's quarters in the back. The most popular comic strip in the country Madam & Eve, concerns a white householder and her black maid.
Many work Sunday to Sunday with indefinite hours, resting when their employer says rest, as one domestic put it. Some get only a few hours off every Thursday. They usually eat the family's leftovers and live free of charge in a tiny back room.
"I do not have dreams, only worries," Antoinette Dlungwana said of the weight she carries as sole provider to four children and three grandchildren back home in Transkei. "As I am eating this meal, I am thinking about them."
She rarely speaks to her children because her employer will not permit her to call home. To reach her family, she must get a friend in the post office to relay messages for he
That is the lesser of her indignities. She dusts the sofas and chairs but is not permitted to sit on them. She must move from room to room the one kitchen chair she is allowed to sit on, placing newspapers underneath before setting it down.
"If I want to sit and talk with the madame, I have to bring my chair," she said. "I cannot sit on her chairs. My things must not mix with her things. I must use my own spoon, my own plate, my own cup".
Let's rewind to 1994, shortly after the election, a domestic worker was shot and killed by her boss after she admitted to voting for Mr. Mandela, human rights lawyers said. - New York Times
A few days before the election, Delsie Sedibe recalled, her employer showed her a copy of the ballot and pointed to the picture of F. W. de Klerk, the former President, and gave instructions: "This is what you vote for.
The employer took her maid to the polls, as many did, and warned her again about what she must do. Mrs. Sedibe nodded and stepped inside. She took a deep breath.
"When I was in the voting booth, it was only me and my God," she said. "So I put an X next to Mandela."
"When I was in the voting booth, it was only me and my God," she said. "So I put an X next to Mandela."
Some time after Mr. Mandela won, Mrs. Sedibe was watching the news, after finishing the ironing, when she was asked what she was doing.
"I want to hear what Mandela is saying," Mrs. Sedibe said.
"Why are you listening?" the master said. "That means you like him...."
"I want to hear what Mandela is saying," Mrs. Sedibe said.
"Why are you listening?" the master said. "That means you like him...."
"He's the President," she said. "He was voted by the people."
"Oh, that means you voted for him, too," the master said angrily.
A few weeks later she was dismissed. The job had been paying her $100 a month. - NYT
"Oh, that means you voted for him, too," the master said angrily.
A few weeks later she was dismissed. The job had been paying her $100 a month. - NYT
