That’s almost won
we would all go and eat during our lunchtime.
“It was a lot of us. There were about 500 of us. We would all go in that kitchen, which was also used as a change room. It was next to a dumping area, it had no windows so there was no ventilation and there were sewerage pipes running through so it smelt very bad,” she says.
In 2013, the call to end outsourcing intensified. Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib took over the reins in June that year and he abolished these “apartheid rules”, says Mzobe.
Cleaners at Wits now earn R7500, up from R2000 or R2500.
“Life has definitely improved,” says Mzobe.
She says previously life was so bad that, after getting paid, she would go to the bank once and her money would be finished. Some of her colleagues did not even have money to buy lunch.
“I know of two colleagues who used to eat out of the bins on campus. Life was really bad. We would go to the university’s dump site and pick up broken chairs, tables and carpets to take them home,” says Mzobe.
Although employment by universities has changed the lives of the workers who spoke to the Mail & Guardian, it has also brought its fair share of problems.
The workers spoke about how they still feel like “outsiders” even though they are employees of the university.
“The old staff will always say things that will remind us of the olden days. And they sometimes tell us that after three years the university will retrench us because it belongs to the old staff and not the new staff,” says Mnguni. “They never miss a chance to remind us of where we come from, and it is not nice to hear those things every day. We still feel like an outsider even though we are permanently employed. They call us the ‘insource ones’.
“We will always have that thing at the back of our minds that we were that bitter pill that they had to swallow and now it’s turning their stomach around.”
Another problem the workers are addressing with management is unequal working conditions between the old staff and “the insourced ones”.
#Outsourcingmustfall activist Vusi Mahlangu said it was a “mischievous act” that employers divided workers. He said they always knew the struggle would continue after contracting came to an end.
But, he added, it was encouraging to see that some universities have taken the plight of workers seriously and ended outsourcing.
As for Monkwe, her prospects are bright. She has registered to study human resources at Unisa, and the university is paying for her studies.
“Some of my colleagues used to stay in plastic shacks but at least today they have managed to buy zinc to build their shacks.
“Today, I have Unisa assets with me outside of campus. Back then I could not even leave campus with this bottled water with a Unisa emblem. Who was I to do that? People used to do as they please with us. They would call us names and we couldn’t say anything, we had no voice. I remember those days.”
No more.
O Universities that have not changed their policy on contract workers are: Walter Sisulu University, North-west University, University of Stellenbosch, Mangosuthu University of Technology, University of Zululand, Vaal University of Technology, Central University of Technology, University of Limpopo, Sol Plaatje University and University of the Western Cape. The Tshwane University of Technology, University of Zululand and University of Fort Hare have partially insourced some of the services. Rhodes University has never outsourced its services.