by Lebohang Phanyeko, Johannesburg WASP
Workers employed by the Jozi@Work scheme are employed across Joburg to pick up refuse and litter. Many have been on contract since the beginning of the scheme introduced by ANC mayor Parks Tau. It is supposedly a ‘job creation’ scheme but in reality it is a programme for the super-exploitation of labour by parasitic outsourcing companies.
The new DA administration continued with Jozi@Work, but new mayor Herman Mashaba’s objective is to terminate the program citing corruption by the previous administration. But corruption is not the fault of ordinary workers.
It is clear that Mashaba’s and the DA’s election promise that they will create more jobs in the city is back in the cold fridge! Workers’ contracts are administered by multi-million Rand outsourcing BEE company “Waste Group” which manages Jozi@Work on behalf of the municipality’s Piki-Tup. But instead of creating real jobs they ‘recycle’ jobs. They don’t even call workers ‘workers’ but ‘beneficiaries’ as an excuse for denying them their rights and in reality retrenching them. They ‘recycle’ jobs by bringing in new ‘beneficiaries’, claiming they are “giving others an opportunity”. No doubt they are paid per ‘work opportunity’ created rather than the total number employed!
These workers have organised under the banner of #OutsourcingMustFall to fight back and for those that have lost their jobs when they are ‘recycled’ to be reinstated. Workers are demanding that Waste Group is kicked out and workers employed full-time by Piki-Tip. To support these demands workers occupied Piki-Tup’s Joburg offices on 11 January. Discussions are still underway with Piki-Tup management to find solution – but as a result of the occupation, fresh talks have been promised for next week.