HELP FOR THE HELPERS

DRUM speaks to three domestic workers who have either lost their jobs, haven’t been able to leave their workplaces or are working in unsafe environments due to the coronavirus pandemic

- SIYABONGA DZIMBILI

WHEN it was announced that Covid-19 had hit South Africa, Nothando Shezi* was told to stay home from the first week of March while her employers assessed the situation.

“At month end I got paid for the one day I worked but then I was told I did not have a job to come back to,” she says.

The domestic worker had been working for two Johannesburg North families two days a week for the past year.

To supplement her income, Nothando (31) also found employment through SweepSouth on her free days. But now she is unable to go out and earn a living.

By law, employees who perform parttime or full-time domestic work in the home of their employers need to be registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) if they work more than 24 hours a month.

Yet Nothando was told she wasn’t registered for UIF by any of her employers. “And there is nothing they can do for me,” she says.

Because she doesn’t qualify to claim from the UIF, she doesn’t qualify for the Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme set up by government to help struggling workers who lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

The mother of three isn’t sure how she’ll make it through the lockdown.

“We’ve been living off help from relatives, but it’s not enough and I haven’t even paid rent this month,” she says.

Domestic workers will only be allowed to go back to work when the lockdown restrictions are eased to level 2, leaving many like Nothando wondering just how they’ll survive.

In a survey conducted last month by Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance, it was found that only 38% of 600 respondents are being paid full wages.