By Nomvuyo Sebeko

In 1891 the workers went on strike to fight for better working conditions. In April 2018 workers took it to the street to fight against minimum wage and for better salaries. We asked Activators what they think about the newly announced minimum wage and this is what they had to say:

Sindisa Qeqe Activator 2018 Northern Cape

For me the national minimum wage is small, imagine coming from university and earning that amount. It might be another way of teaching us to stop learning to be employees but employers. We can open our own business and create jobs instead of waiting for the government to do things for us. When will our laziness stop? When will the blame stop? We need to get out of our comfort zone.

Tebogo Phaahle Activator 2017 Gauteng

R3500 is not enough to meet my basic needs I will never accept it, Vat being 15% makes matters worse. Unfortunately I was retrenched two months ago and got the taste of a R5000 salary which was also not enough imagine R3500? Looking at transport and accommodation that takes about  50% of your salary not mentioning basic needs. So I say know your worth and don’t succumb to R3500 p/m, the value of education and your hard work is expensive. Opening your business is much better than R3500 all you need to do is work hard to find investors.

Caroline Shabangu Activator 2018 Gauteng

I think it is not a good idea to pay people R3500 p/m because some of us have families that need to be taken care of. Again looking at the bright side it is better than nothing so one might go for it. If you are sitting at home hungry and doing nothing R3500 might be a lot. It is also a good way to get experience so that when another better post says two years’ experience you have it. You must take the small steps for the future to get there.

Afikile Tshona Activator 2016 KZN

In my opinion this law of minimum wage of R20 per hour is an insult to us and it is not a living wage. The cost of living is too high in our current economy in the country. The government should increase it again by making it R32 per hour. In that way it will be better than R20. to be honest. R20 is not enough to support our families and be able to travel to work every day.

A South African president earns R2, 7716,798 p/y, the national assembly speaker earns R226, 400p/m and the deputy speaker earns R158, 477p/m while the ministers earn about R192, 439p/m. How minimum is our cabinet salaries? With just one salary they can pay thousands of employees. They even get benefits on top of their salaries to pay for accommodation and buy cars while the  person on the ground level have buy food, pay school fees, pay for accommodation and transport with only just R3500p/m. who is fooling who?