Fair deal on the domestic front

DOWN the years, of all workers in South Africa, domestics have surely been the most vulnerable to exploitation. Many of them need their wages not only to care for themselves but also very often for an extended family.

They are often the first in their employer’s kitchen in the morning and the last out of it at night. Very often their working hours mean they have little time for their own homes and family.

The least fortunate work for employers who pay the skimpiest wages possible – and until now they could do little about it. Now the Government has come up with a flexible and viable policy: a minimum wage of R800 a month for urban areas with an hourly scale for employers who cannot afford to pay that.

The new deal is both equitable and fair. The question is, can it be enforced?

Proper contracts should be drawn up as the law demands and then at least any worker with a grievance can secure redress.

Force of the law will now be felt as workers insist on their rights: proper time off on public holidays and Sundays, prescribed severance pay and decent accommodation if they live in.

At last, it seems, one of the most neglected categories of workers in South Africa will have a reasonable deal and proper recourse to law if they don’t get it.

As Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has made clear, much of the success of the new deal will depend on an information campaign.

That way, no employer will be able to plead ignorance, short-change domestic staff – or deny them a proper annual increase. They will be properly considered at last.

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Fanie scores one for prisoners’ rights

Jailed Kirkwood farmer Fanie de Lange, who has served nearly half of his seven-year sentence for his role in the murder of PE lawyer Merwe Swart, claims he should have been a free man by now, and has taken his case for parole to the High Court.

It certainly seems that De Lange has been a model prisoner, and that he has genuine grounds for complaint.

In court papers, De Lange cites examples of how he earned remission months, which were withdrawn without explanation, and several cases in which he worked with authorities to fight corruption and abuse for which no time off was granted.

It seems these examples are all a matter of record, which gives De Lange a strong case to argue for release.

We hold no brief for De Lange, but also do not see why he should be victimised because he worked with authorities to expose corruption and maintain order at St Albans prison where he is being held.

It would seem that with every imaginable evil rife in our prisons, valuable inside information about drugs, weapons, gangsters, and even a murder, should be rewarded.

He has made serious allegations of victimisation against provincial commissioner Raphepheng Mataka. As the Jali Commission has exposed, the running of prisons is a disgrace, so the rights of inmates to seek redress in the courts must be supported.