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Domestic workers among hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic

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Domestic workers in South Africa are among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the country’s economic decline. Data from the Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor survey (OMSIM) shows that more South African households have recently chosen to do without a domestic worker to save money.

The findings are based on interviews with over 1 500 households, gauging the financial attitudes and behaviour of the country’s working population. Before Covid-19, South Africans employed around one million domestic workers. Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey now shows that about 250 000 domestic workers have since lost their jobs.

According to data from the Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor survey, 30% of households indicated that they had to cut down on domestic help, due to the increased cost of living.

Johannesburg resident, Sharon Naidoo says she had to cut down from employing her domestic worker on a weekly to monthly basis to keep up on payments as a result of the interest rate hike.

“The rise in interest rates has had a huge impact on my household budget as funds had to be diverted to the higher loan spending and away from general spending. This has added tremendous strain in trying to manage the rising costs from grocery items to fuel and utility bills and the reality is that there is less disposable income now. We had to re-evaluate expenses and cut back on the luxuries and having a domestic worker at this time is not a necessity,” says Naidoo.

Another Johannesburg resident, Shivani Bopp says she had no choice but to stop employing her domestic worker as she can no longer afford to pay her.

“In today’s economy and the covid pandemic, many households are facing different types of challenges which are affecting the standard of living. I personally had to stop bringing in my domestic worker on a regular basis as the cost of living has increased in recent months and I am trying to cut down on costs where necessary,” says Bopp.

Domestic worker, Charity Siwela used to work six days a week before Covid. Now, she says she only manages to get one or two days of work a week, leaving her in an extremely difficult financial situation.

“My name is Charity and I have been in South Africa for almost three years now. When I first came here it was okay before Covid because when covid came, most of my jobs I lost them because my bosses were not able to pay me and now I am struggling to pay my rent and for food and to send money back home because I am from Zimbabwe. It’s very tough because now I only work twice or once a week. And it’s very painful because the cost of living is very high and I can’t send money home. I am really struggling and it’s very hard,” says Siwela.

Thousands of complaints

Domestic Workers Alliance (IZWI) says they have received thousands of complaints from domestic workers over the last two years. Co-founder of Izwi, Amy Tekie says many domestic workers who have lost their jobs have taken a major financial knock, resulting in them not being able to put food on the table and leaving their children without an education.

“Domestic workers in government circles are categorised as very low scale workers and those terms were used in the minimum wage negotiations and so farm workers and domestic workers are amongst the lowest paid workers in the country so everything has to be hand to mouth. So if you go a month without pay you don’t have a lump sum of savings that you can draw on.

You can’t use your disposable income to spend on your rent because you working on a few thousand rand a month and some of that is going to support extended family. So it has a very direct impact on children being able to go to school, on people being able to stay in their housing, and on what kind of food people are able to access or even access food at all,” says Tekie.

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