Forward to a living wage! #OutsourcingMustFall

Statement by WASP

The Workers and Socialist Party stands in solidarity with South Point workers and supports their decision to take industrial action against their ongoing oppression. From Wednesday, 1 September, 190 members of the General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) will be on strike.

WASP member and GIWUSA president Mametlwe Sebei has told us that, “amongst many other contraventions of the BCEA, is the fact that workers often work a 12 hours shift without lunch, and are not even paid for the time spent on duty when they are supposed to be on lunch. The workers are tired of those kinds of treatments hence they are angry, desperate for a balanced solution to all their problems. What’s even worse is that the company does not bargain in good faith. Several agreements entered into between the representative union and the company bore no fruitful results as the company pulled back on their initial promises. Strike has now become  the only way to get the company to take the workers and the union seriously.”

We are calling on working class organisations, students and activists to show their solidarity on the picket lines, and raise awareness of this strike action. Workers are fighting for:

• A living wage of R12 500 a month
• Payment of outstanding Temporary Employment Relief Scheme funds and bonuses
• Changing rooms and canteens for taking breaks
• Insourcing of staff
• Hiring more Front Desk Officers and maintenance staff
• A thirteenth cheque
• Payment towards medical aid
• Housing and transport allowances

While workers have continued working hard during the pandemic, South Point management has refused to meet them halfway on their reasonable demands. Instead, the company has placed massive economic burdens on the shoulders of their workers. During the current negotiations, South Point has failed to produce audited financial statements to the GIWUSA, yet they claim that the pandemic has impacted their profits and therefore cannot meet the demands of workers. But, a closer look at the company reveals a very different picture. 

South Point is a property investment and management company that rents out office space and accommodation. It is a major landlord in Braamfontein, and is rapidly expanding in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Gqeberha, Cape Town and eThekwini. The company receives money directly from NSFAS for student accommodation – in fact 70% of its revenue comes from the public coffers. This means the company has been able to build its property empire directly from public funds that are allocated to  education. In March it was reported that South Point houses 13 000 students across the country, and owns R4 Billion in student housing assets. They can expect to receive between R31 000 and R35 000 yearly for each student from NSFAS. This amounts to potentially over R400 Million a year in guaranteed rent through state funding. 

With workers reporting wages as low as R2000, these funds are certainly not put towards decent jobs and working conditions for the workers on whose backs South Point makes their money. Even the highest paid workers are reportedly only paid R5500 a month – desperately short of the average cost of living of R8281 for a family in South Africa as calculated by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group. The model of South Point relies on maximizing rentable space. This leads to both shoebox rooms for students and no space for workers to eat, change or keep their belongings. The bosses from South Point rely on corporate welfare while refusing to provide a decent working environment or wage. 

In 2018 South Point workers won a decisive victory after taking strike action against the company. Amongst other concessions, workers won a wage increase of more than 20% and the insourcing of cleaning staff. A big factor was the broader campaign to support the strike, where WASP called on South Point tenants to withdraw their rent until workers’ demands were addressed.

The company failed to implement the insourcing agreement, and has instead expanded its outsourcing project beyond cleaning staff to security, line management and maintenance in some locations. South Point has also cut workers’ hours before concluding the consultation process, disregarding the financial stress workers are facing. In August 2020, about 50 workers staged a lunchtime protest over unpaid TERS money. Former shop steward Thomo Luka was cruelly dismissed for reporting to Wits’ Vuvuzela that South Point is refusing to pay their TERS money.

Workers are again speaking out against unfair labour practices. The conditions faced by them are similar to those faced by workers across the country. Not only is South Point exploiting its workforce to extract maximum profits, but they are doing so with tax money that is funneled into a privatized landlord empire worth billions! This is part of the broader pattern where public funds that should be going towards public services are instead lining the pockets of executives on bloated salaries who enjoy lavish lifestyles, while the workers who run and maintain their properties are refused even basic medical aid, housing and transport allowances.

The desperate need for affordable housing in cities has been criminally neglected by the state. Without the creation of affordable, publicly owned and controlled housing in the cities, all levels of government have directly aided the situation of rising rents and buying up land to develop these landlord empires. Joining with the capitalist tradition, universities have also pushed to increase their student populations in order to gain more funding and fees, but have neglected to expand facilities to accommodate this influx. Consequently, housing shortages have become a growing problem for those who work and study in the cities. Companies like South Point prey on this basic human need while the government supports them through tax subsidies like the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) tax initiative – essentially a tax cut for developers in cities.  

Whether we are workers being exploited, communities being displaced, or youth having our futures sold out to the billionaires, this is a fight that must be taken up by all of us as the working class. The pandemic has highlighted the need for quality and affordable housing for all, as well as safe working conditions and decent wages to cover both the living costs of today, and the emergencies that may arise tomorrow. Workers do not have billions of rands in assets to fall back on when they cannot pay bills at the end of the month. The working class is being made to foot the bill of the pandemic while the government continues to side with the bosses and worsen the inequality of capitalist society. Comrade Sebei says that “workers are in a militant mood and ready for action”.

It is our duty to support and build a campaign around South Point workers who are making a stand against this criminal system.

We say:

• Stand with striking South Point workers!
  • Students, residents at South Point properties, communities and workers must join the picket lines and take part in solidarity actions to build support for this strike. 
  • We call on all small business and NGO tenants of South Point to withhold rent for the duration of the strike.
• R12 500 living wage for all workers now!
• OutsourcingMustFall: End all labor brokering. Workers should be directly employed by the companies and institutions that they do work for, with full benefits.

• Housing is a right! Nationalise all student residences under democratic student and worker control. Fight for a mass investment in building publicly-owned, affordable housing to end the crisis of housing in South Africa. 
• The ruling parties have failed the working class. We must build a campaign for a mass workers party on a socialist programme. Fight for an end to the capitalist system of exploitation, oppression and greed. Forward to socialism!

Picketing locations:

Johannesburg: South Point Central, 17 Melle Street Braamfontein

Cape Town: President House, 22 Barrack Street

Tshwane: Kinkora Building, 575 Pretorius Street

Gqeberha: 21 Chapel House, 21 Winston Ntshona Street

eThwekwini: Poynton House, 85 Dorothy Nyembe Street

*Note: we originally quoted a GIWUSA shopsteward at South Point when it was in fact the President of GIWUSA.