“Maberete” strike ends more than a decade of labour broking at the South African Post Office

On 4 April 2012 casual workers employed through labour brokers reached an agreement with management at the South African Post Office (SAPO) to be employed directly. This constituted one of the few major victories in the working class’s fight against all forms of third party employment.  In a research paper on the continuous series of strikes at SAPO that raged from 2009 until 2014 (and have continued since then) Wits academic David Dickinson writes: "At its peak there were upwards of 8 000 labour broker workers earning a quarter of the salary of SAPO’s permanent employees whom they worked alongside. Yet this army of second class workers remained practically invisible. It was a dirty secret."   By April 2012 the labour broker workers at the Post Office had brought this “secret” out into the open. Through their experience of previous strikes they had developed various tactics to bring postal delivery to a complete halt. They formed a group known as the “Mabarete” (the berets) who tracked down scab labourers to prevent them from carrying out their duties. The “Mabarete” also marched on the home of a SAPO manager to intimidate him into negotiating with the labour broker workers. These tactics, although often illegal, proved to be effective as an agreement was soon reached to make labour broker workers permanent.