Zimbabweans are risking their lives delivering food on scooters and badly maintained vehicles in South Africa. The drivers deliver foo...
Zimbabweans are risking their lives delivering food on
scooters and badly maintained vehicles in South Africa.
The drivers deliver food for Uber Eats which last year announced
that more than half a million people had downloaded its app in South Africa.
For many immigrants in South Africa, food delivery is an
enticing prospect, offering flexible hours and lenient background checks.
People who don’t meet the requirements for the job, including undocumented
migrants, can easily obtain fake licences, vehicle registration papers and
roadworthy certificates.
GroupUP reports that Sam, from Zimbabwe, was smuggled
across the border in 2011, finding work as a labourer in the construction
industry. In 2017 a friend encouraged him to join Uber Eats, which had just
launched in Cape Town, but Sam had neither a valid licence nor asylum papers.
“But there are people that can help you with all those particulars,” Sam told
me. He estimated that just one in ten drivers on the platform had signed up
with legal documents.
To join Uber Eats, drivers apply online. The signup page
says: “Work on your schedule. Choose your wheels. Earn good money.”
Sam, who lives in Gugulethu, became an Uber Eats driver
without knowing how to use a motorbike. He asked a friend for lessons, buzzing
around a parking lot until he felt able to balance. On his second day at work
he crashed in town, escaping without injury. A few months later, in Camps Bay,
he spun out on a corner. His knee swelled to four times its normal size, he
said, and he couldn’t work for nearly a month.
Since then, mercifully, he has not been in another
accident, even though his current bike has a single mirror and dangerously
smooth tyres. Most days he waits for orders on Kloof Street, where a group of
mostly Zimbabwean drivers have claimed a section of pavement. They sit on
wooden benches outside the Engen, sharing them with the car guards, or straddle
their bikes, texting and listening to music. When their apps chime they grab
their helmets and swing into the traffic, knowing that a customer is waiting.
Drivers can be penalised for late orders. In a typical day,
they earn between R300 and R500. (Each company has different fee structures,
but earnings fall within a similar range.) Out of this they must pay for their
petrol, mobile data and vehicle maintenance; a large number rent motorcycles
from private owners, pushing up their running costs.
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