Lourandi Kriel | CEO | SweepSouth | mail me |
The city is still dark when her alarm sounds. A faint digital chime cuts through the quiet as her children sleep. Her day begins long before sunrise. First comes the walk to the taxi rank. Then follows a crowded minibus ride and the slow crawl through Johannesburg’s traffic.
From her seat, she watches two worlds pass by. One is the world she leaves behind, where survival is a daily struggle. The other is the world she travels to, where high walls and manicured lawns signal comfort and security. This journey repeats itself, often across seven days of work, with little room for rest.
During this journey, her mind becomes a ledger. School fees fall due next week. The price of maize meal has risen again. Her mother’s clinic appointment cannot wait. She mentally subtracts these costs from the R3,635 she earns each month. She knows the true cost of keeping her family afloat is closer to R4,500. As a result, the gap between what she has and what she needs hangs in the air. It travels with her as a silent passenger on her daily commute. This weight settles long before she picks up a broom or scrubs a floor, even when her schedule stretches into seven days of work.
When she arrives at the gate, she pauses and takes a breath. Then she steps into that other world. Here, her purpose is clear. She brings order and creates a space of peace and cleanliness for another family. In this work, she finds a profound sense of pride. “To me it’s a calling,” she might say, reflecting the thoughts of a worker from our latest survey. “I enjoy caring for the elderly and anyone who needs care”. This deep sense of purpose forms the quiet, beating heart of a sector that provides stability to countless South African homes. However, this pride exists alongside a hidden reality of struggle and sacrifice.
We can no longer afford to ignore it, particularly for those enduring seven days of work without adequate reward.
Impossible budget
This mental ledger of an impossible budget does not describe an isolated story. Instead, our 8th Annual Report confirms that this struggle is systemic. When income fails to cover survival, debt becomes the only lifeline.
“Being in debt is not easy when you are not earning well and you have mouths to feed, leading to depression”, another worker told us. Her story echoes across the sector. One in three domestic workers remains trapped in a cycle of borrowing that erodes both finances and well-being. For 35% of those in debt, the situation feels “hopeless”, despite their commitment to seven days of work in some cases.
Moreover, many domestic workers carry responsibilities far beyond their job descriptions. In fact, 82% are the primary breadwinners in their households. On average, they support four dependents on this single income. Our data further shows that 7% of domestic workers are on the job seven days a week. In addition, a quarter of them face a one-way commute of over an hour just to reach work. Despite this dedication, 39% earn less than the National Minimum Wage. They work constantly. Yet the math of survival still does not add up, even with seven days of work.
This unrelenting financial pressure creates deeper vulnerability. It keeps domestic workers tied to workplaces where dignity often erodes. “There was a time that I doubted my ability to do work,” a respondent confessed. “I was constantly told or shouted at. They said I make childish mistakes and that I don’t deserve the job”. This experience is not rare. Our report shows that one in five domestic workers has faced abuse in the workplace. For some, this abuse persists across years of seven days of work with no reprieve.
The irony is stark. While facing immense personal challenges, many of these workers become the pillars of other people’s families. People often refer to them as ‘second moms’. They play a pivotal role in how suburban children grow up. They create routines and shape how these children see the world. Yet while they care for our children, many must sacrifice time with their own. This sacrifice becomes even more pronounced when their labour stretches into seven days of work.
Going beyond the transaction
As employers who welcome these workers into the intimacy of our homes, our responsibility must extend beyond a simple transaction. The comfort and stability we enjoy should not come at the cost of theirs. The findings in our report are more than statistics. They serve as a call for empathy and a challenge to a system that consistently leaves the most vulnerable behind.
Meaningful change begins with acknowledgement. We must face these hard truths and take deliberate action. It starts with paying a living wage that closes the gap between earnings and basic costs. However, it should not end there.
We can become a support structure for domestic workers, just as they are for us. This support could include contributing to a life insurance policy to protect their families’ futures. It could also mean supporting their aspirations to further their education or build a home of their own, especially for those locked into seven days of work.
Ultimately, the state of the domestic work sector reflects our society’s values. For too long, we have accepted a status quo where those who care for our homes cannot afford secure lives for themselves. We cannot allow the quiet comfort of our homes to rest on the quiet desperation of others.
True progress is not measured by peace within our own four walls. It is measured by our contribution to an equitable society. In such a society, the women who raise our children also have the time, resources and peace of mind to raise their own, without being trapped in endless seven-day workweeks.
