This Tuesday Special Assignment exposes the exploitation of young girls desperate for work and eager to escape the poverty of small Karoo towns.

Once a week a taxi leaves Beaufort West for Cape Town.  Its passengers are rural women who have been recruited as domestic workers. Some are not even 15 years old.  They are driven by poverty to seek employment in the city, lured by employment agencies that promise decent wages and good working conditions. 

When they arrive in Cape Town, many of these promises turn out to be false. In the back room of a domestic service agency, “madams” come to choose their maids. They pay the agency between R100 and R200 to find them a domestic worker.  Many of these up-country girls are taken to homes where they are abused and exploited, with no protection whatsoever.  Some are paid only R400 a month yet are expected to work a 15-hour day, seven days a week.  They are locked up on the property and allowed no visitors.

Many employers prefer rural girls to local city women. This is because they live on the premises and so are available at all times of the day.  They like the fact that these girls know no-one in Cape Town and so don’t need days off to visit friends. They also believe that rural women work harder.

Despite legislation to protect the rights of domestic workers, the authorities say they can do little to protect these women. Ignorance of the law makes the situation worse, as most rural women know nothing about minimum wages – they’re prepared to accept the exploitation because the situation back home in the Karoo is so desperate.

“Keep The Home Fires Burning” is produced by Sasha Wales-Smith and cameraman Shamiel Albertyn.