To: Nomakhosazana Meth, Department of Employment & Labour

Increase the minimum wage for Food Handlers to R30,23 per hour and treat them fairly!

[Update: 19 February 2026] The Department of Basic Education responded to the Food Handlers memorandum and petition, and they mentioned that they are currently working on a standard guideline on Food Handlers towards addressing the issues Food Handlers are experiencing, as outlined in the Memorandum they submitted.

"I work for a school in the Gauteng region and I am a volunteer food handler. I cook for approximately 450 children. We peel vegetables, cut out big bags of cabbages, dish up and wash the dishes and big pots. This is a contract job we get hired into because our children are also enrolled in the same schools. The problem is that we are paid too little.

The R2100 that the Department of Education pays us is not aligned with the National Minimum Wage rate of R28,79 per hour as amended in 2025. We work from 6, 7 and sometimes 8 hours depending on what is being cooked and how long we wait for samp pots to soften up so we can wash them and leave because we are only supposed to leave after all the pots have been washed.

Our typical day begins at 6:30 and we knock off either at 1 pm or 12:30. These are 6 to 7 hours of work and yet we are not paid according to the legal standard of the country. We work very hard to ensure that we cook good meals for the learners and clean up the school kitchen and yet we are not respected. We are treated like the lowest of the low in these schools. We are often paid late. Every other staff member at the school will receive their payment on time except for us. We are paid very late in the evening on the 30th or even on the first. Our income is discussed in meetings openly without respecting our privacy with groups that do not have anything to do with our income.

The school management does not communicate with us properly. We are not told in advance when kids will be released early from school. You will find that we will still be cooking certain pots and then we get told to forget about that pot and dish up whatever is ready for the kids because there is an early lunch that we were never told about. Even the learners and the teacher assistants pick up on this attitude and end up not respecting us because of the way in which we are treated. It is as if we are not like other workers at the schools.

We found out from food handlers in other townships that there are workshops on safety, health and first aid that we are not sent to when colleagues in other townships are sent to these workshops. This treatment needs to stop as we are serious about our work and provide an important service to the schools.

Why is this important?

It is not right that the Department pays us below what the country's National Minimum Wage is. This is exploitative and impacts on us very negatively as we also have groceries and home expenses to pay for ourselves and our families. The service we provide is very important and our role as workers should be acknowledged and we should be given the respect we deserve like all the other staff members at the school" - An affected food handler, slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

The Labour Research Service (LRS) put together this video to show the struggles food handlers face. Watch here it here: https://youtu.be/PBtWU-lVSdk?t=51

* Volunteer food handlers are employed under the Social Sector arm of the Expanded Public Work Programme (EPWP) for the School Nutrition Programme, where community members are identified and employed to cook and feed over 9 million learners in schools, thereby addressing malnutrition. According to the National Minimum Wage signed into law in 2026, the national minimum wage has been set at R30,23 per hour, while those employed under EPWP are only entitled to a minimum wage of R16,62 per hour. These rates have been adjusted for 2025 with the increase to be effected from 1 March 2025. The adjusted rates are as follows: R30,23 per hour for the National Minimum Wage, and EPWP is set at R16,62 per hour.

References

[1] National Minimum Wage Increase - Effective 1 March 2026: https://labourguide.co.za/employment-condition/national-minimum-wage-increase-effective-1-march-2026

How it will be delivered

Emailed to Department of Employment and Labour

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Links

Campaign Website

Updates

2026-03-16 11:21:57 +0200

[Campaign Update: 26 September 2025] On the 26 of September 2025, The department of Labour responded to our memorandum. You can read the update here: https://www.facebook.com/amandla.mobi/posts/pfbid05tPkhGgoByCbmP7mk2sbj6WybenZmncPsG9djAGkDRsNEq8i9yoqSDafQwihaperl

2025-10-14 10:40:48 +0200

[Campaign Update: 01 September 2025] On the 29th of August 2025, we went to the Department of Employment and Labour offices in Pretoria to handover a memorandum. The Memorandum was accepted by Niresh Singh, the deputy director of employment equity policy and compliance at the department. They committed to responding to the Memorandum Friday the 12th of September 2025.

* [Campaign update]: Food handlers have received an increase of only R100 so far.

* [Campaign Update]: We delivered your name and hundreds of others calling for Volunteer Food Handlers (VFHs) to be paid a decent wage targeting the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Department of Social Development (DSD), but despite following up and tagging them on social media they failed to respond. But we won’t give up. We have worked with the campaign starter to shift strategy and update the campaign to call on the Minister of Employment and Labour to increase wages to the 2025 National Minimum Wage of R28,79 per hour.

2024-07-29 15:38:32 +0200

100 signatures reached

2024-07-10 21:03:54 +0200

50 signatures reached

2024-06-03 14:05:14 +0200

25 signatures reached

2024-05-08 10:16:10 +0200

10 signatures reached