The Trials and Tribulations of Zimbabwean Precarious Women Workers in Johannesburg: A Cry for Help?

Mondli Hlatshwayo

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.15.1.03

Authors

Mondli Hlatshwayo University of Johannesburg, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.15.1.03

Keywords:

Migrant Women Workers, Xenophobia, Trade Unions, Feminization, Johannesburg, Zimbabwe

Abstract

There is a growing literature on the conditions of Zimbabwean women working as migrant workers in South Africa, specifically in cities like Johannesburg. Based on in-depth interviews and documentary analysis, this empirical research paper contributes to scholarship examining the conditions of migrant women workers from Zimbabwe employed as precarious workers in Johannesburg by zooming in on specific causes of migration to Johannesburg, the journey undertaken by the migrant women to Johannesburg, challenges of documentation, use of networks to survive in Johannesburg, employment of the women in precarious work, and challenges in the workplace. Rape and sexual violence are threats that face the women interviewed during migration to Johannesburg and even when in Johannesburg. The police who are supposed to uphold and protect the law are often found to be perpetrators involved in various forms of violence against women. In the workplace, the women earn starvation wages and work under poor working conditions. Human rights organizations and trade unions are unable to reach the many migrant women because of the sheer volume of violations against workers’ rights and human rights.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Mondli Hlatshwayo, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Mondli Hlatshwayo is a senior researcher in the Center for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg. Hlatshwayo has published peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and an edited book on xenophobia, migrant workers, workers’ education, technology and the labor process, the politics of the world cup, and precarious work. Hlatshwayo obtained his doctorate from the University of Johannesburg in 2013.

References

Amisi, Baruti et al. 2011. “Xenophobia and Civil Society: Durban’s Structured Social Divisions.” Politikon 38(1):59-83.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2011.548671

Batisai, Kezia. 2016. “Transnational Labour Migration, Intimacy and Relationships: How Zimbabwean Women Navigate the Diaspora.” Journal Diaspora Studies 9(2):165-178.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09739572.2016.1185236

Bolt, Maxim. 2016. Zimbabwe’s Migrants and South Africa’s Border Farms: The Roots of Impermanence. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316275733

Braun, Virginia and Victoria Clarke. 2006. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2):77-101.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Child, Katharine. 2017. “8 Things to Know about the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit.” Times Live, September 15. Retrieved January 24, 2018 (https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-09-15-8-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-zimbabwean-exemption-permit/).
Google Scholar

Chireshe, Regis. 2010. “The Impact of Poverty on Women’s Psychosocial Well-Being: Narratives from Zimbabwean Migrant Women in South Africa.” Journal of Psychology in Africa 20(2):193-197.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2010.10820363

Connel, Tula. 2016. “Zimbabwe Migrant Farm Workers See Dawn of Justice.” Solidarity Center, May 08. Retrieved January 24, 2018 (https://www.solidaritycenter.org/zimbabwe-migrant-farm-workers-win-court-case/).
Google Scholar

COSATU. 2016. “Letter of Invite to the Vulnerable Workers Task Team (VWT), 23rd September 2016, at COSATU House, 2nd Floor Boardroom, 10h00.” Johannesburg, South Africa.
Google Scholar

Crush, Jonathan, Abel Chikanda, and Godfrey Tawodzera. 2015. “The Third Wave: Mixed Migration from Zimbabwe to South Africa.” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines 49(2):363-382.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2015.1057856

CWAO. 2017. “Submission to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Labour on the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, the National Minimum Wage Bill and the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, all of 17 November 2017.” Johannesburg, South Africa.
Google Scholar

Dasnois, Alide. 2014. “It Takes a Worker 100 Years to Earn What a Director Earns in One Year.” Groundup, November 12. Retrieved January 22, 2018 (https://www.groundup.org.za/article/it-takes-worker-100-years-earn-what-director-earns-one-year_2435/).
Google Scholar

Dastile, Nontyatyambo Pearl. 2013. “Omalayitsha bayasithwala: Stories of Women Caught in the Web of Illegal Cross-Border Migration.” Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems 12(2):277-289.
Google Scholar

Department of Labour. 1997. Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Cape Town: South African Government Printers.
Google Scholar

Dzingirai, Vupenyu et al. 2015. “Migrating out of Poverty in Zimbabwe.” Working Paper 29, September 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2018 (http://migratingoutofpoverty.dfid.gov.uk/files/file.php?name=wp29-dzingirai-et-al-2015-migrating-out-of-poverty-in-zimbabwe.pdf&site=354).
Google Scholar

Ettlinger, Nancy. 2007. “Precarity Unbound.” Alternatives32(2007):319-340.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/030437540703200303

Fine, Janice. 2014. “Challenges and Strategies Restriction and Solidarity in the New South Africa: COSATU’s Complex Response to Migration and Migrant Workers in the Post-Apartheid Era.” Retrieved January 22, 2018 (https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Restriction-and-Solidarity-in-New-South-Africa-migration-report.1.2014.pdf).
Google Scholar

Guion, Lisa A., David C. Diehl, and Debra McDonald. 2001. Conducting an In-Depth Interview. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.
Google Scholar

Harris, Bronwyn. 2002. “Xenophobia: A New Pathology for a New South Africa.” Pp. 169-184 in Psychopathology and Social Prejudice, edited by D. Hook and G. Eagle. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Google Scholar

Hassim, Shireen et al., (eds.). 2008. Go Home or Die Here: Violence, Xenophobia and the Reinvention of Difference in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22008114877

Hlatshwayo, Mondli. 2016. “Xenophobia, Resilience, and Resistance of Immigrant Workers in South Africa: Collective and Individual Responses.” Pp. 21-43 in Just Work? Migrant Workers, Globalization and Resistance, edited by A. Choudry, M. Hlatshwayo. London: Pluto Publishers.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt194xgtm.6

Kalleberg, Arne L. 2009. “Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition.” American Sociological Review 74(1):1-22.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400101

Kihato, Caroline W. 2007. “Invisible Lives, Inaudible Voices? The Social Conditions of Migrant Women in Johannesburg.” African Identities 5(1):89-110.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725840701253787

Kuljian, Christa. 2011. “2010 Annual Ruth First Memorial Lecture, University of the Witwatersrand: Making the Invisible Visible: A Story of the Central Methodist Church.” African Studies 70(1):166-174.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2011.559383

Lefko-Everett, Kate. 2010. “The Voices of Migrant Zimbabwean Women in South Africa.” Pp. 269-290 in Zimbabwe’s Exodus: Crisis, Migration, Survival, edited by J. Crush and D. Tevera. Cape Town: Kingston. Lehulere. Oupa. 2008. “The Xenophobia Outbreak in South Africa: Strategic Questions Facing the New Social Movements.” LINKS. Retrieved September 10, 2009 (http://links.org.au/node/535).
Google Scholar

Makoro, Mantuna. 2016. “The Construction of Illegality: Basotho Migrant Domestic Workers’ Experiences.” Masters Dissertation. Department of Anthropology. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Retrieved January 22, 2018 (http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/19987).
Google Scholar

Masenya, Veronica, Katinka de Wet, and Jan K. Coetzee. 2017. “Narrating Everyday Precarity: Women’s Voices from Resource Poor Areas.” Qualitative Sociology Review 13(1):192-209.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.11

McCulloch, Gary. 2004. Documentary Research in Education, History and the Social Sciences. London: Routledge Falmer.
Google Scholar

McDuff, Elaine. 2015. “Women’s Voices from the Zimbabwean Diaspora: Migration and Change.” Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration 8:1-46.
Google Scholar

McNevin, Anne. 2006. “Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans-Papiers.” Citizenship Studies 10(2):135-151.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020600633051

Moyo, Innocent, Chris C. Nshimbi, and Trynos Gumbo. 2018. “Migration, Logics of Inclusion and Exclusion and Xenophobia: The Case of African Migrants in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Pp. 91-110 in Crisis, Identity and Migration in Post-Colonial Southern Africa, edited by H. Magidimisha et al. Cham: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59235-0_6

Munyewende, Pascalia. 2008. “Perceptions of Risk and Level of Precaution Used to Prevent HIV/AIDS Infection: A Study of Zimbabwean Migrant Women Living in Johannesburg.” MA Research Report. Forced Migration Studies Program, Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2008.05.387

Mutopo, Patience. 2010. “Women Trading in Food across the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border: Experiences and Strategies.” Gender & Development 18(3):465-477.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2010.521991

Ncube, Mxolisi. 2014. “Zim Migrants Still Face Challenges.” The Zimbabwean, April 29. Retrieved January 22, 2018 (http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/zimsit_zim-migrants-still-face-challenges/).
Google Scholar

Nechama, Brodie. 2016. “FACTSHEET: Where do South Africa’s International Migrants Come From?” Africa Check. Retrieved November 15, 2018 (https://africacheck.org/factsheets/geography-migration/).
Google Scholar

Pedrina, Vasco. 2015. “Lessons from Migrant Workers Organisation and Mobilisation in Switzerland.” Pp. 129-148 in Just Work? Migrant Workers, Globalization and Resistance, edited by A. Choudry and M. Hlatshwayo. London: Pluto Publishers.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt194xgtm.11

Phipps, Alison et al. 2018. “Rape Culture, Lad Culture and Everyday Sexism: Researching, Conceptualizing and Politicizing New Mediations of Gender and Sexual Violence.” Journal of Gender Studies 27(1):1-8.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2016.1266792

Picherit, David. 2018. “Rural Youth and Circulating Labour in South India: The Tortuous Paths Towards Respect for Madigas.” Journal of Agrarian Change 18(1):178-195.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12196

Pophiwa, Nelson. 2014. “The Drivers and Outcomes of Feminization of Migration in Africa.” Pambazuka News, June 26. Retrieved January 22, 2018 (https://www.pambazuka.org/gender-minorities/drivers-and-outcomes-feminization-migration-africa).
Google Scholar

Sibanda, Sehlaphi. 2011. “Seeking Asylum: A Case of Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers in Rosettenville, Johannesburg.” Master’s Dissertation. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Google Scholar

Smit, Ria and Pragna Rugunanan. 2014. “From Precarious Lives to Precarious Work: The Dilemma Facing Refugees in Gauteng, South Africa.” South African Review of Sociology 45(2):4-26.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2014.917876

Standing, Guy. 2011. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781849664554

Thomas-Brown, Karen and Annalie L. Campos. 2016. “A Qualitative Analysis of the Lived Experiences of a Small Group of Filipino Immigrants.” Qualitative Sociology Review 12(1):114-141.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.12.1.06

Waite, Louise. 2009. “A Place and Space for a Critical Geography of Precarity?” Geography Compass 3(1):412-433.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00184.x

Williams, Christine L. and E. Joel Heikes. 1993. “The Importance of Researcher’s Gender in the In-Depth Interview: Evidence from Two Case Studies of Male Nurses.” Gender & Society 7(2):280-291.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124393007002008