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The taxi hailing service/app, Uber, has been operating in South Africa since 2013. It's very convenient for riders, obviously. What never gets spoken about enough are the drivers, all 13000 of them
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Firstly, it's common knowledge that Uber drivers are not employees of the company, but "independent contractors". What this means is they are not covered by any labour laws, which would give them benefits and safeguards like the right to join a union for instance
Uber goes to lengths to justify this "independent contractor" label by describing drivers as part-time "driver-partners who choose to provide rides using the Uber platform". Uber views drivers as "entrepreneurs" and "independent contractors" who are working for themselves
Uber simply says they provide these "driver-partners" with the platform for them to meet "riders". They pontificate on how much they vet and background-check all drivers before allowing them onto their platform
The thing is many Uber drivers are not independent entrepreneurs, that is, they are not about to purchase a fleet of cars to expand their enterprise
Uber drivers are not self-employed either as they depend on Uber, (which acts as a labour broker) to obtain "riders" and are subject to apps rules. Yet, like the self-employed, they bear job-related costs: transport, repairs, maintenance and insurance for accidents ill-health etc
While insisting that drivers are not its employees, Uber still has the sort of demands expected from a conventional employee. e.g Uber requires drivers to accept at least a certain percentage (80%?) of drive requests...
Any driver who fails to accept a certain percentage of "rides" within a certain period, may be "deactivated"! So, even though Uber says these non-employees are "independent", a driver cannot just choose how much he wants to work or where he doesn't want to drive to for instance
Now, while Uber claims these drivers are just freelancing, its requirements to accept the majority of "ride requests" means drivers don't have time to pursue anything else other than drive for Uber
All of the above is what generally happens in other countries. South Africa is different. Sure, there's no shortage of drivers, how many of them can afford vehicles Uber deems suitable - sedans no older than 5 years?
SA's unemployment rate (including people who have given up looking for work) is over 40%, with 60% living below the international poverty line. Strictly speaking, there should not be a market for Uber in SA. Except South Africa is the most unequal country in the world...
So, even with unemployment and poverty widespread among Black people, Cape Town, Joburg and Pretoria have a well-off middle class with thousands of "riders" wealthy enough to use the kind of service Uber is selling.
The small issue of drivers not being able to afford the cars?
The small issue of drivers not being able to afford the cars?
No problem! Uber has a solution: find people with the means to buy new vehicles, and get drivers to work for them. Now some of these owners, who are mainly white, operate entire fleets, with some running over 50 cars each
So, instead of "disrupting" the unequal distribution of wealth in South Africa, Uber has only managed to make things worse. In 2016, some drivers took Uber to court demanding to be recognised as employees, they won but Uber won the appeal and they were all "deactivated"
This is what one of the drivers had to say: "As African people, with our histories of colonialism and apartheid, who can afford such a premium vehicle? The idea has become empowering people who were already rich."
Multinational rentier behemoths don't care about such things.
Multinational rentier behemoths don't care about such things.
