Thinking with our hearts

The drive was long and tedious. With my staff member sitting in the passenger seat next to me, we wound our way down the South Coast highway towards the old airport, took the Umhlazi turnoff and then drove for what seemed like an eternity along the Mangosuthu Buthelezi highway, before turning off to her house.

In actual fact, the distance from our place to her place in Umhlazi is no more than 30 or 40 kilometres, but late on a Friday afternoon it can take well over two hours – a close on 4 hour round trip.

I was cursing: "Damn those taxi drivers!" During the course of their recent strike I wondered on more than one occasion what was more inconvenient; them on the road or them off it.

Last weekend’s strike gave me plenty of opportunity to chat to our staff as we drove the many miles they travel every day to get to and from work. Our conversations centred on work, transport, time and money.

As we spoke I got more insight into the world of the worker at the level of a carer, domestic worker, gardener or security guard. It was an eye opener.

The average salary in the above employment categories is, give or take 10 or 15%, around R2500 per month. Now the lady who I drove back to Umhlazi works in our home for abandoned babies as a carer. She spends R46 per day getting to and from work. This means she is spending R966 per month on transport which leaves her with just R1534 to support herself and her family.

Now one could argue that she could live closer to her work. However, over the years that she has worked as a carer she has managed to squirrel away enough money to build her family a two bedroom house. Her son goes to school in the area and all her friends and family live there. She isn’t going anywhere.

One could also argue that she could get a job closer to home. Well, there aren’t any. She is one of the lucky ones that have a job. So she pays the money and travels for around four hours a day, just grateful for the fact that she has work.

It is easy to become desensitised to the plight of workers in our country; to the hours and hours spent travelling to get to our homes and businesses; to the hundreds and hundreds of Rands coming out of meagre salaries being spent on transport.

It is also tempting for us to say: "Well we provide people with jobs in our homes, gardens, complexes or malls and they are getting more than the minimum wage - what more do they expect?"

On the cold hard face of it, this is of course true.

But perhaps there is place for thinking a little more with our hearts than with our heads when it comes to employing people. This raises some very tough questions:

How do I feel about providing a woman with work that essentially traps her in a life of poverty? How do I feel as I drive her the hours and hours it takes her to get to and from work every day (grumbling all the way about the inconvenience to myself)? How do I feel about the fact that I am providing this experienced and very hard working woman with – after her transport costs – R73 to work for a whole day?

I realise that I run the risk of sounding like either a peddler of middle class guilt or a trade unionist. I guess there could be a little of the latter in what I am saying, but it is certainly not my intention to make anyone feel guilty. I just question whether, from a poverty alleviation perspective, my actions are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. I question whether I am being inadvertently exploitative. Given the figures above, the answer is clear.

Now this is the point where, in my head, I begin to push back quite strongly: "Now don’t be so hard on yourself. You can’t afford to pay people any more than you do. Would they rather earn R73 per day or nothing at all? You can only do so much."

I am not suggesting that this issue is easy to deal with. It talks to a complex area of the issue of poverty in our country – that of the working poor.

But if we can dig deep and cover our workers transport costs (or even a small part thereof) then let’s do it. If we are to be completely honest, the difference it will make to us will be incomparable to the difference it will make to them and their families.

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