‘Mihlali was right!’ Waiters speak out on despicable working conditions, describing restaurants as ‘enclaves of modern-day slavery’
South Africans have in the past week have been reeling from the unravelling details of how restaurant workers, particularly waiters, are treated by the eateries across South Africa.
Former Pretoria restaurant waitress Mihlali Nobavu’s TikTok video went viral, putting the cat among the pigeons as an outpouring of anger on social media platforms quickly provoked action from government departments which descended on restaurants with multi-sectoral blitz raids.
By Tuesday, IOL reported that the Department of Employment and Labour had unleashed an intensive four-day inspections of restaurants across South Africa, following the reports of endemic exploitation in the sector.
“A multi-disciplinary team of Department of Employment and Labour inspectors will from today, (Tuesday) September 17, 2024 lead an integrated national blitz of the hospitality sector, targeting restaurants,” the national department said in a statement.
During the intensive blitz, Department of Employment and Labour chief inspector for occupational health and safety (OHS), Milly Ruiters said a total of the department’s 1,984 “boots will be on the ground” during the week.
The team of inspectors were checking for compliance with regard to Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), Occupational Health and Safety, Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA), Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA), Employment Services Act (ESA) and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Act.
However, IOL went around Gauteng to speak to different waiters including at plush eateries dotted in the extravagant malls and exquisite venues where the rich and famous gather and spend thousands of rands daily.
At one of South Africa’s most popular malls, the Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in Pretoria East, waiters who spoke to IOL on condition of anonymity said the hospitality industry as “modern day slavery among the sea of extravagance and delicious food”.
“I have been a waiter since 2010 and that was when I was introduced to the restaurant life. It did not make any sense at all. How can one go to work and not have a salary? Within a few weeks I got a grasp of how the industry works. Tips was the salary, those with commission were kings. I was told, you serve a table, when you are done, you get a tip. That tip is your remuneration,” said Zodwa Masango.
She went on to serve at that Pretoria restaurant for almost two years, without a salary, surviving on tips from generous customers.
“At the end of the day, I would make about R120 to R200, and that was great when you calculate it by the end of the month. However, in all my excitement, I was not prepared for was verbal abuse. The general manager was a lady who would not hesitate to embarrass you in front of customers at any time, for any reason. She could take your table and give her favourite waiters,” said Masango.
When she moved to another eatery, she then realised that she had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
“At this new workplace, the owner had a reputation of beating up male waiters. At this place I learnt about fines. These fines would be removed from the tips you get from customers. If a customer returned food, the waiter pays full price for that food. It was the waiter’s mistake. There was no clear formula for the fines,” she said.
One could be fined for being late at work, for not having condiments on the table, for a customer standing up to ask for anything.
“There was also the issue of breakage. A fee charged for cutlery loss, glass and plate breakage. So, every time a customer takes a glass or cutlery home, it's the waiter who pays for it. The owner would have friends and family visit his place for lunch or dinner and does not tip you at the end of service. That time you have no salary at all. You are basically working for nothing,” she said.
“Of all the places I have worked, they do not provide transport for waiters no matter how late you knock off.”
Zodwa said the issue of sharing tips is also a contentious matter in the restaurants.
Lately, more restaurants instruct waiters to insist that the customer tips using a bank car, which means the restaurant will deduct “unreasonable bank charges” and share the waiter’s tips with other staff like bartenders who have a monthly basic salary.
“All the issues raised by that Babel girl (Mihlali) are real. Us who have been in this industry a bit longer know how it works, and because of experience I am able to blend in fast. Good tips are there. Good service can get you far. Unfortunately, those high tips come once a week or month. That is just the reality and tell me what options we have?” she asked.
She said restaurants force the waiters to sign contracts including indemnities which protect the business in case where the waiter gets injured for example while climbing to clean windows.
A few kilometres away, at the iconic Hazelwood block of restaurants – from trendy bistros to fine dining international establishments clustered in one area, 30-year-old Adelaide Zungu said she prays everyday that an opportunity comes up in another sector so that she can leave her waitress job.
“What I do not understand is how my fellow South Africans concluded that waiters are foreigners and they must be exploited and enslaved. Government ministers come to these restaurants, they see us, and tomorrow you see them on TV appearing to be shocked by our circumstances. When I left KwaZulu-Natal I was hoping to start over in Gauteng after family issues overwhelmed me back home. But I should as well go back home, because here you suffer in the midst of all the glitz and glamour. Waiters serve hearty meals to customers yet they are hungry. How heartless is that? It’s like we are sub-human and have no feelings,” she said.
Zungu added that the hype around Mihlali’s video will burn out and life will continue.
“ I am not moved at all by these inspections where the government officials are jostling to be on TV. Why do they have to call TV stations for them to just do their jobs? To them it is a show. Inspectors always come, get into managers’ offices and leave. Police also do the same. If you dare speak out like Mihlali, you get cancelled, she will not get a job in this sector. We are slaves basically,” she said.
On the other hand, IOL also spoke to Shingai Sithole working at a plush Sandton venue, who narrated how she was fired from a Menlyn eatery a few years when she refused to share her tips with other staff.
“This is not longer a job, we actually pay to be here. For every tip I get, for example R100, they deduct some which they say is for other staff members and tax. That is why restaurants are moving towards a cashless environment – they do not event trust us with the tips. What Mihlali said was the gospel truth but it is not limited to Babel. It is the industry norm now,” she said.
“You pay for the cutlery, you pay for your uniform. It did not make sense for me to share the tips with anyone because it is money I receive from a customer for my service. On top of that, I had no salary. While should I be the one to pay for runners, the restaurant staff who are hired to wash dishes and cleaning. They are not working for,” she said.
Zungu said after she raised her displeasure at having her tips shared, she was fired and she took matters to the CCMA for arbitration.
“That is where it dawned on me that these restaurant owners are powerful and connected. I was fighting a losing battle. They bring their representatives and I had no one. I just had to walk away and that is what many of my colleagues have experienced too. The restaurants are prepared to use money and fight you at the CCMA but they are not prepared to pay staff,” she said.
“Even though many of the restaurants are moving towards a petty salary now, you are promised R5,000 as basic salary and when month-end comes you will be lucky to get half of that. They give you reasons including tax and UIF – yet you never signed up for anything. When you leave the job, you walk away with nothing. The restaurants steal from us, and exploit us because they know that we are desperate for jobs.”
She added that in many establishments, waiters now have to contribute daily towards “breakages”.
“Whether you broke something or not, you are told to pay something in case you will break something. And when you break something you pay again. It can be as R50 daily deducted from your tips. It is compulsory, and we really do not have a say. It can even be R100 deducted from a waiter daily,” said Zungu.
She also lamented the long hours in the industry which she said waiters are not forced but to eke out a living, they volunteer to work the dreaded “double shifts”.
“Double shifts means you can come in at 6am and finish work at 9pm or later, some restaurants can close at 11pm. Because of the economy, you find that we volunteer to do such hours just to increase our incomes,” said Zungu.
*The waiters names have been replaced to protect them.
IOL