The protest happened despite an apparent promise by the university’s management that a report looking into whether outsourcing should continue or be eliminated will be released end of June. Workers staged the demonstration alongside some students and academic staff.
The demonstration was against the university's plans to interview all workers for their jobs, as the contracts of companies they are currently subcontracted to expire at end of June. The workers, who include all cleaners, cooks and landscapers, are concerned the process will lead to job losses.
“This is our children’s bread and butter, so we have to fight [to keep our jobs]. We can’t allow other people to come here and take our jobs,” cleaner Deliwe Mzobe announced to fellow workers.
She read a memorandum the workers delivered to management. Among its three demands, the memorandum appeals to management to "provide a commitment in writing that all workers … will retain their jobs at Wits through a transfer under section 197 of the Labour Relations Act".
Tawana Kupe, Wits’s deputy vice-chancellor for finance, received the memorandum. "Your demand is that I should respond by 12 noon on Thursday, I will respond before then," he told the workers.
Poor conditions
An investigation released this year that looked into the treatment of contracted workers at Wits found that "working conditions of employees are unacceptably poor".
Workers told the Mail & Guardian they have learnt from shop stewards that they are to be interviewed for their jobs. This is because Wits has awarded tenders to new companies, they said. "They say they will interview us as of tomorrow. We won’t allow this. No one will interview us," said a cleaner, who asked not to be named.
Another told the M&G: "Some of us have been working in the same jobs for 10 years now, but now we’re told we must apply again. This is not fair."
Addressing the demonstration, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, an academic and member of the Wits workers' solidarity committee, said it was unacceptable that workers should be interviewed for jobs they already occupy. “What the university outsourced is the function, not you,” he told the workers.
The solidarity committee has been fighting for abolishment of outsourcing at Wits for three years now. It counts management’s decision to investigate the practice and its sustainability among its gains.
Ndlozi told the demonstration the committee will fight to ensure no one interviewed. “We have to fight. We’ll not concede to anyone. If the university must come to a standstill to protect these jobs, so it must be."
Outsourcing
The demonstration was not just about uncertainty over jobs, but outsourcing itself. "Away with outsourcing, away,” read one placard. Another said: "Outsourcing equals racism."
Wits University introduced outsourcing in 2000. Then vice-chancellor Colin Bundy privatised cleaning, catering and grounds maintenance. Hundreds of Wits workers were retrenched but about 250 were re-employed by private companies.
Outsourcing as done by the university "undermines" the country’s labour legislation, president of the Academic Staff Association of Wits University David Dickinson told the demonstration. "Wits should be leading the way [in reversing the socio-economic legacy of apartheid]. If we do not lead, who will?"
Tokelo Nhlapo, deputy president of the Students’ Representative Council, told workers the body will stand by them. "You must not allow to be interviewed for jobs you already have. The university must not treat you like second-class citizens. We cannot go on like this, but we must stand up and fight," said Nhlapo to loud cheers from the crowd.
Ndlozi said the committee suspects the university is gunning for workers who have been participating in the fight against outsourcing. "During those interviews they’ll try to deal with activists and ensure they are kicked out," he told the M&G.
But a shop steward, who asked not to be named, added another possible dynamic: "They want to kick [out] the elderly workers here. Look around, most of the workers are old. If you are over 50 you are likely not to get your job back. They want to bring youngsters. Youngsters have limited responsibilities, while we have to feed our children,” he told the M&G.