Hire Household Staff
in South Africa
Morgan & Mallet places household staff for wealthy families across South Africa. Butlers, estate managers, private chefs, nannies, housekeepers, chauffeurs, personal assistants, and domestic couples.
We have offices in Wellington, as well as across the globe in London, Paris, Geneva, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Monaco, and Dubai. Our database holds over 200,000 candidates.
For every four people who apply, roughly one makes it through. That selectivity is the reason our placements last and we can secure the best candidates for you.
If you own properties in South Africa and abroad, we staff all of them through one recruiter.
To get started recruiting household staff in South Africa, get in touch today.
Why South African
families choose Morgan & Mallet
A lot of the families we work with in South Africa own homes in more than one country. A wine estate in Franschhoek and a flat in Dubai for example.
Cape Town in December, the Mediterranean in January. We staff every property through a single point of contact.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, puts it simply: “I think we are the only agency that fits the exact locations where these properties are. Most agencies are very local. They’re not international like us.”
Both our co-founders started in private service. Morgan worked as a butler and chauffeur for ultra-high-net-worth families in London. Laurine Mallet worked as a nanny.
They started M&M in 2015 because wealthy families were going global, owning properties in multiple countries, travelling constantly and needed an agency that could keep up.
Today we have eight offices across four continents. Every office runs the same custom-built tracking system. A candidate interviewed in London is visible to recruiters in Dubai and Geneva within minutes.
This works the other way too. If you’re based abroad and have a property in South Africa, Camps Bay, the Lowveld, Gauteng you get the same vetting standards you’d expect in London or Geneva.
Where we place staff in South Africa
We find the very best household staff for your needs in South Africa, using our database, marketing and recruiter skills.
Our Applicant Tracking System helps us to filter candidates based on your exact needs and our recruiters search the whole market looking for the right fit for your household.
For background checks specific to South Africa, we work with local screening providers. If you have a security team, we coordinate with them too.
South Africa’s wealthiest city. Sandton is home to the JSE and the head offices of most of Africa’s largest banks.
In suburbs like Sandhurst, Hyde Park, Bryanston, and Morningside, households often have several staff, a house manager, housekeeper, chef, driver, and gardener working together.
Gated communities like Steyn City, which covers over 2,000 acres, need full estate teams. And with over 45% of South Africa’s wealthy individuals living on estates, properly vetted staff matter.
Cape Town attracts wealthy second-home owners from all over the world. Clifton, Bishopscourt, Camps Bay, and Constantia all have steady demand for experienced household staff.
The Cape Winelands, Paarl, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch are home to about 3,600 high-net-worth individuals. Estates like Val de Vie and De Zalze need staff who understand wine hospitality, guest management, and running a home when the owners are away.
This is one of the fastest-growing parts of the country for wealth. Umhlanga and Ballito have seen strong growth over the past decade, and coastal estates like Zimbali and Simbithi need housekeepers, nannies, and estate couples.
Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, and George are home to estates like Pezula, Fancourt, and Whale Rock Ridge. Most are second homes, so staff here often manage the property on their own for weeks at a time.
We look for candidates who can do that, people who keep standards high without someone checking in every day.
How we select candidates
Every candidate goes through a 90-minute interview. We verify technical skills, check references with former employers, and run criminal background checks before their profile reaches you.
Our system won’t let a candidate move forward until all checks are done.
For housekeepers for example, we test product knowledge during the interview, this is a good way to find out how well a housekeeper knows their role.
Laurine Mallet ranks what she looks for in a candidate: personality and soft skills first, then discretion, then technical skills. As she puts it: “It’s not because you worked as a butler for a president that you have soft skills. You can pretend to have soft skills, but it’s not part of your personality.”
For every four people who apply to our database, roughly one makes it through.
Eric Rios, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet and former Google recruiter, audits every candidate profile monthly. He checks that references have been contacted, criminal records completed, and certifications uploaded. It keeps quality consistent across all eight offices.
Roles we recruit
for in South Africa
We have over 2,500 butler profiles in our database, with a 96% placement success rate. Average experience: 7 years. In South Africa, we place butlers in large estates across Gauteng and the Western Cape, managing formal service, events, and day-to-day household operations.
One of the hardest roles to fill anywhere in the world. Large wine estates, gated communities, and families with several properties need estate managers. These roles make up 10% of all the roles we place across the world, and there are far fewer qualified candidates than there are positions.
Over 4,500 chef profiles in our network. South African families often want someone who can cook different types of food. Cape Malay, Mediterranean, Japanese, Middle Eastern.
Over 6,400 profiles. 89% of our housekeepers have looked after both a main home and a second property. For homes in Constantia, Sandhurst, or the Winelands.
Over 8,800 childcare specialists. 73% are trained in Montessori, Waldorf, or similar methods. 68% speak more than one language. More South African families now want nannies with formal training who can travel between properties.
Over 1,500 registered couples, a housekeeper and butler, or housekeeper and chauffeur, who live on the property and work as a team. Globally, 21% of clients want a domestic couple but struggle to find one. They’re ideal for wine estates and Garden Route homes where staff run things independently.
Over 3,000 profiles. In South Africa, security awareness is a big part of the role. We look for candidates with advanced driving skills, route knowledge, and discretion.
Over 5,600 PA profiles. PAs are one of the top five most requested roles we fill. Privacy agreements typically add 15–20% to base pay.
Household staff salaries
in South Africa (2026)
Salaries depend on where you are, the size of the property, and the complexity of the role. Johannesburg and Cape Town tend to pay the most.
These ranges are for experienced staff in wealthy homes, well above the national minimum wage of R30.23/hour (from March 2026):
Position | Salary Range (GBP) |
|---|---|
Full-Time Housekeeper | R180,000 – R420,000 |
Live-In Nanny | R180,000 – R480,000 |
Butler | R300,000 – R720,000 |
Private Chef | R360,000 – R960,000 |
Chauffeur | R180,000 – R420,000 |
Estate Manager | R480,000 – R1,200,000 |
Personal Assistant | R300,000 – R720,000 |
Domestic Couple | R360,000 – R840,000 (combined) |
Salary data source: M&M Annual Salary Report 2025/2026.
Employment basics for
household staff in South Africa
If you employ domestic staff in South Africa, there are a few things you need to know. We help with all of this as part of our service.
Every domestic worker needs a written contract covering duties, hours, pay, leave, and how employment can be ended. Eric Rios, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, has seen what happens when this gets skipped: “Disputes are traced back to unclear pay terms more often than personality conflict. Written wage structures reduce tension before it starts.”
From 1 March 2026, the minimum is R30.23 per hour. For a 45-hour week, that works out to about R5,890 per month. Staff in luxury homes will earn well above this, but you need to meet the floor.
If your staff work more than 24 hours a month, you need to register them with the Unemployment Insurance Fund. You each pay 1% – 2% of the monthly salary in total.
21 consecutive days of paid annual leave. Paid sick leave. Three days of family responsibility leave per year. Four months of maternity leave (unpaid, but your employee can claim through UIF).
Maximum 45 hours a week. Overtime capped at 15 hours. Sundays and public holidays are double pay.
You need to follow fair procedure under the Labour Relations Act. After six months of service, four weeks’ notice is required. In a retrenchment, severance is one week’s pay per completed year.
Since 2021, domestic workers are covered for injuries and illnesses at work. You need to register and contribute.
This is a general guide, not legal advice. We’d recommend speaking to a South African labour attorney about your specific situation.
South Africa
office address
11 Malan Street, Wellington, 7654
phone
+27 660171121
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Meet your
regional team
Are you a candidate
looking for a role?
We work with clients across South Africa and internationally. Have a look at what’s available.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you select candidates?
Every candidate does a 90-minute interview, reference checks with former employers, and a criminal background check. Our system won’t let them move forward until everything is done.
For South African placements, we use local providers for criminal record checks and employment history. We can also work with your security team if you have one.
What does it cost?
Get in touch and we’ll give you a clear picture of fees for your search.
Can you help with contracts and compliance?
Yes. We work as employment advisors. We help you write contracts, set salary expectations, and understand your obligations under South African law, UIF, minimum wage, leave, and termination.
If you employ staff across multiple countries, we can guide you through that too and recommend specialist legal partners where needed.
How long does it take?
Jonathan de Vanderbilt, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, says: “The fastest searches start with clarity. When a household can explain expectations at week two, month two, and month six, interviews improve and candidates self-select accurately.”
Straightforward roles like housekeepers can move fast. Harder searches, estate managers, domestic couples, chefs with specific dietary expertise take longer because there are fewer people who qualify. We’ll give you an honest timeline once we understand what you need.
Hire household staff
in South Africa
Get in touch and we’ll reply within 24 hours. We’ll set up a call, listen to what you need, and get to work.
Your recruiter handles every placement, Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, or Dubai. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee.