Malamulela is very worried about the minimum wages that are being introduced for taxi drivers, farm workers and domestic workers. These measures will put more people out of jobs. Already 40% of South Africa’s workforce is idle or involved in crime or other negative activities. We cannot understand why these actions are being taken.

At the end of last year we saw in the papers that domestic workers in Louis Trichardt were being put out of jobs because of minimum wage laws. We travelled to Limpopo Province to see if we could be of assistance to the workers. We found that labour union members were checking the salaries of domestic workers and if their salaries were below the minimum wage the union representatives demanded that the house owner must pay the minimum wage or the domestic worker must leave the job.

We spoke to domestic workers who had been forced to leave their jobs. Some of the workers had been working for the same families for many years and they said they wanted to go back to work but they were afraid that the unions would be angry with them. They told us that the families were very good to them and gave them accommodation and food and work clothes. There was no place where they could find better jobs. If they did not get their jobs back they would be unemployed and they and their families would suffer. A job at a low wage was better than no job at all.

When we spoke to the housewives they told us that they could not afford to pay their domestic workers more money. If the government insisted they would have to do the work themselves. But they would be heartsore because their workers were part of the family and they were worried about what would happen to them if they were forced to let them go. In a few cases we were able to persuade the employers to risk prosecution because their domestic workers were so desperate to have their jobs back. We know that if the labour inspectors prosecute the housewives the domestic workers will once again lose their jobs but in the meantime they have not become part of the unemployment statistics. We believe that government and the unions are doing something evil by persecuting domestic workers and forcing them out of their jobs while at the same time pretending to be the champion of the rights of workers.

Our experience has shown us that these minimum wage laws interfere with the rights of unskilled and disadvantaged workers. They take away the right of such workers to decide for themselves what wages they are prepared to work for. What gives the government the right to tell workers that they are not allowed to work for less than a minimum amount if the choice is between low pay and no pay? And does the government not realise that they are shutting the door in the face of thousands of people who are already unemployed as well as people who will be coming onto the job market? The reason is that jobs that would have been created at wages that are less than the minimum wage never get created. Nobody knows about them because they don’t exist. We wonder how the people who cause the mass unemployment with their legislation and minimum wages can sleep at night.

Can it be that the Minister of Labour and his department do not know what the result will be when they introduce these minimum wages? We have been shown many studies by economists explaining why these laws cause unemployment. One of these studies by American Professor Walter Williams is called “Minimum wages, maximum folly”. According to the dictionary we see that folly means “being foolish, want of good sense, unwise conduct, foolish act idea or practice” and if the professor uses such harsh words about minimum wages, why is our government implementing them. Professor Williams was talking about how foolish it was to implement minimum wage laws in America, which then had 5% unemployment. What would he say about a country with 40% unemployment implementing such laws?

Until now if you could not find a job anywhere else, women could become domestic workers and men could become taxi drivers, and men and women could find work on farms. Maybe the work is hard, with long hours and little pay, but it is work. The members of our organisation and all the other unemployed people that we are fighting for just want a job. Any job. Once they have a job they can always jump to a better job that becomes available. But having no job for month after month, year after year, destroys the souls of the people. And we can predict that many taxi drivers, farm workers and domestic workers are going to lose their jobs. It is as plain as the nose on your face. It is not only a matter of losing the job you have. It is also never getting the job you could have had. And more and more families will be dumped into a life of misery. All because of government folly.

The Malamulela Social Movement for the Unemployed is very anxious about even more people joining the ranks of the unemployed. The more of us there are the more difficult it is for us to get jobs. We appeal to the Minister to study what good economists have said about minimum wages and to reverse his intended actions. We need policies that will reduce unemployment and not increase it. So for all the plans that have come from the Department of Labour have caused more unemployment and not less. It is time for a change.

Authors: Thabang Mokotong (President) and Stanley Mohapi (General Secretary)
January 2003