GROUNDUP: Fired for being foreign as employers bow to March and March threats

The Casual Workers Advice Office has recorded a sharp rise in reports of xenophobic labour practices in Gauteng.

“They used us and threw us away when they were done,” Raphike Bado, a Malawian immigrant who had worked in South Africa for many years, told GroundUp at the Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO) in Germiston, Johannesburg.

The CWAO says it is dealing with a wave of cases targeting immigrant workers in Gauteng. Many have been unable to work since the run-up to the 30 June “deadline”. Many have now completely exhausted their savings and cannot afford the travel costs to leave SA.

Gugu Moyo, the CWAO’s immigrant liaison officer, said immigrant workers “are being treated as less than human” and are being exploited.

She worries that there “is no end in sight” as politicians and anti-immigration “activists” continue to scapegoat immigrants and spread hatred .

The workers are “ordinary people just trying to create a life here like all of us”, she said.

The CWAO said it has, since June, taken on over 100 cases of Gauteng workers being fired, suspended or shut out of their jobs. Many of them have valid papers.

None of the immigrant workers it has assisted has successfully claimed UIF, despite contributing to the fund, because their employers have refused to co-operate. CWAO is trying to assist with CCMA cases.

The workers CWAO is assisting described cases of exploitation, including low wages, unpaid overtime and unsafe working conditions.

CWAO said it had also helped hundreds of immigrants who wanted to contact embassies, sort out documents or arrange repatriation.

“We can no longer trust anybody. If you are a foreigner, whether you have documents or not, you fear for your life,” an emotional Rejoice Moyo told GroundUp.

Moyo’s is one of two dozen stories related to GroundUp by immigrant workers who had approached the CWAO Germiston office for assistance.

Originally from Zimbabwe, she has lived in SA for 17 years. But she was dismissed after the anti-immigrant group March and March turned up on 10 June at the shop where she worked as a sales consultant.

“These foreigners you are hiring must be gone,” a March and March supporter told her employer, and informed him of their 30 June “ deadline ” for undocumented immigrants to leave SA.