Dozens of grooms - wielding sticks‚ knobkerries and sjamboks - protested outside the Summerveld horse training centre‚ west of Durban‚ demanding an increase in their hourly wage.
Summerveld‚ which is one of the country’s premier horse training facilities‚ is where many of the horses set to take part in the Durban July are trained and stabled. The iconic race – worth upwards of R300-million to the KZN economy in terms of holiday spending and bets – takes place on Saturday.
The grooms told TimesLIVE photographer Jackie Clausen that they wanted their rates pushed up to R25 an hour.
One of the grooms said that workers did not get payslips‚ making it difficult for them to know exactly what they were earning.