Zodwa Phiri witnesses young South Africans being educated every day. But Zodwa may never witness the education of her own children. This is because, as a cleaner for the University of Johannesburg, Zodwa earns R8,57 an hour and a meagre R1Â 300 a month.
It’s for this reason that Phiri, along with hundreds of other cleaners as well as workers’ unions, gathered at the Library Gardens in central Johannesburg on Tuesday to chant songs and demand higher pay.
Johannesburg cleaners asked their employers (companies such as Supercare, Isikhonyane and Global Cleaning) for a R1,20 increase in their hourly pay. Cleaners in rural areas are earning just R6,87 an hour, which means a minimum salary of less than R600 a month.
According to Dolly Mlotshwa of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), until that salary increase is granted, about 8Â 000 cleaners will continue to “stay away” from work.
Paul Roux, spokesperson for the National Contract Cleaners’ Association (NCCA), said that it had a good working relationship with the 16 unions involved and that after 10 days of negotiations they had reached deadlock.
He said that it had offered the cleaners a 6% increase in their wages. This means 50c more for every hour.
But until the demand for the extra R1 per hour is met, cleaners will continue to strike.
“We are going to strike until they pay us. We want a lot of money because when we are sick we don’t have money to go to the doctor and we have children. It is impossible to live,” said Lucky Mazibuko (40), a cleaner working for Global Cleaners.
Supercare Cleaning and Hygiene Services is South Africa’s second-largest cleaning company and has an annual turnover of R450-million.
Chief executive of Supercare Philip Kruger said that the matter is in the hands of the NCCA and workers’ unions.
Supercare employee Mokwena Simon (42), a cleaner at the Carlton Centre, said that because the cleaning industry is the most important sector in business, they should be getting paid more.
“If someone is working in unhygienic conditions, that person is in danger. I put my 100% effort that everyone is living in hygienic conditions … my message to my employer is that I need a living wage.”
Another Supercare employee, Handsome Mokwena, said that most of the cleaners had never gone to school and because of this, their employer took advantage of them.
“When we ask for money, they say we are not educated. But we are working. We are using our hands,” he said.
Some staff at the University of the Witwatersrand pay money out of their own pockets to Wits cleaners to supplement their meagre wages.
The protests in Johannesburg and Pretoria ended peacefully on Tuesday, Satawu said.
The unions are due to meet the employers again on Monday and Mlotshwa said the strike will continue until then.