Most of the men I get to know who make money in Zandspruit’s local economy are not untouched by wage labour. They had worked in various, often unrelated, low-wage jobs: as private security guards, cashiers, golf caddies, or petrol attendants. Khenzo first worked on and off as a petrol attendant and then for a fast-food business before turning to the car-wash business full-time. Xolani, who is working as a taxi driver when we meet at the car-wash stand, had a job on a large construction site that became an upmarket housing estate when he first arrived in Johannesburg; later he worked as a golf caddie. Eric, who operates an IT business from his mother’s house and DJs on the side, had worked as a petrol attendant, as a cashier at a bottle store, and at a nearby factory. All of these jobs were almost always held for short periods, usually under a year, and in a surprising number of cases they came to an end because men abandoned them, despite having no guarantee of another job.

The focus of this chapter is on understanding why, when there are jobs, albeit low-paying ones, men voluntarily exit them or even refuse to take them up. It begins with a snapshot of a few of my interlocutors’ work histories to illustrate the type of irregular and precarious jobs that are readily available in the surrounding shopping malls, industrial complexes, and suburbs. It then unpacks the complex web of reasons that lead some young men to withdraw from or turn down low-wage jobs. I show that young men’s disdain for low-wage jobs is never simply a matter of insufficient pay or bad working conditions. It has to do with the impossibility of meaningful progress in these jobs, the experience of racial inequality in the workplace, and the social demands that come with having wage income. In the final section I draw attention to a long pedigree of urban young men rejecting the wage relation in favour of an alternative livelihood. I argue that rejecting low-wage jobs not only is a protest against insecure and precarious employment but also reflects an aspiration and political demand to live and not just survive.