Sweep South Aims To Innovate Africa’s Home Cleaning Services
Sweep South Aims To Innovate Africa’s Home Cleaning Services. Sweep South is bringing harmony to homes across South Africa with a fresh approach to home cleaning services. Sweep South aims to modernise home services and to be the African pioneers in bringing technology to the industry. With over seven thousand cleaners, and thousands of satisfied customers being served monthly, it is just getting started. Its mission is to create happy homes by providing dignified, flexible work at decent pay to its Sweep Stars.
Apart from pay, Sweep South is about changing attitudes. Part of this includes the language it uses. Moving away from loaded terms like “maid” and “char”, it has taken the approach of a fresh start with the term “Sweep Star” to describe the people at the centre of what it does. It is uplifted each time it sees its Sweep Stars referred to in this way, as it represents how a positive idea can take shape and can change negative language that has been deeply entrenched.
Its Sweep Stars can dictate where and when they would like to work, earn up to 80% of the booking fee (plus tips), and learn to use technology to unlock the power of a device like a Smartphone, so that it becomes a tool that can bring income to their families. This impact on wider communities is something the company is especially proud of, with 74% of its Sweep Stars being primary breadwinners at home. Of the thousands of Sweep Stars it has already given work opportunities to via its platform, 71% were previously unemployed while 29% were underemployed, this is evidence of the real impact it has on creating employment.
Sweep South is a young company, and it still has a lot to do. It faces challenges that have existed for decades and even centuries, including socioeconomic issues, domestic problems that some of its Sweep Stars face that can make it almost impossible for them to consistently provide 5-star service, unreliable public transport and poor infrastructure, and national pay levels for this service that don’t accurately reflect the huge value that domestic workers contribute to the economy and to homes across the globe. The company is encouraged by the work that it has already done despite its young age, and by the amazing support that it has enjoyed both nationally and internationally. It is confident about being able to achieve its mission and to make a positive and indelible mark on domestic services and how they are carried out, not only in South Africa, but in many other markets worldwide.
