Fairwork South Africa assesses how digital platform work is reshaping labour in the country. Led by the Centre for the Future of Work at the University of Pretoria, the project evaluates ride-hailing, food delivery, domestic and personal-service platforms against the five Fairwork principles of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management and fair representation.

Each platform is scored on desk research, evidence it submits, and interviews with the workers who earn through it. The project also mentors master’s students, who carry out sector-specific research under expert guidance, building local capacity to study the future of work.

Digital platforms such as ride-hailing, food delivery, domestic services and professional-service apps have become an important source of work and income in South Africa. In a country with persistently high unemployment, these platforms can create opportunities that may otherwise not exist.

The important question, however, is not only whether platforms create work, but what kind of work they create. Platform work gives many South Africans a way to earn where formal jobs are scarce, yet the flexibility that draws workers in often comes without the basic protections of formal employment.

Each principle is assessed in two stages, worth up to two points each, for a maximum possible score of ten.

Platform work gives many South Africans a way to earn an income where formal jobs are scarce. But the same flexibility that draws workers in often comes without the basic protections of formal employment.

Workers on the road or in clients’ homes face daily physical risks, and few platforms provide meaningful insurance or emergency support when things go wrong.

Fairwork South Africa is the South African arm of the global Fairwork project, which rates digital labour platforms against five principles of fair work. The South African ratings are produced locally, drawing on worker interviews and platform evidence, and feed into the international Fairwork network.