She accidentally paid the cleaning lady 350 bucks extra and got blocked in return. When a dirty apartment showed up later, she knew exactly what to do

The economic situation of domestic workers in South Africa is tough. Many of them are drowning in debt and suffering from financial precarity. And even though they make up a vulnerable segment of the country’s population, it doesn’t give them an excuse to rob someone’s money or deceive people in any way. In a May 12, 2026, TikTok video, homeowner Lethi Mngadi (@lethi_mngadi) shared the story of a cleaning worker she hired, how the worker deceived her, and how she cut to her size by teaching her a valuable lesson in a gentle way.

Blocked after a generous mistake

According to Mngadi, the incident happened in February. A tenant in her Colesberg apartment moved out after the completion of their lease. Mngadi needed to perform the basic inspections and get the apartment cleaned. She called three services to fix the apartment for the new tenant: a painter to paint the walls, a fumigation company to remove the infestation of cockroaches, and a cleaning lady. All three of them arrived and did their jobs. The painter took away their payment via EFT.

However, when completing the payments to the cleaning lady and the fumigation company, Mngadi made a small mistake that cost her R350 ($21.57). Both of them had requested to receive payments via wallets. But while making the payment, she erroneously swapped their numbers, due to which the cleaning lady received an extra R350 ($21.57), which Mngadi still owed to the fumigation company. She even tried to rescue the money by politely asking for it back. That request got her number promptly blocked by the service provider.

Stealing from the thief

The apartment went through two more rounds of fumigation, and each time, Mngadi needed the cleaning lady to clean the house. However, when she called her, she realized that the lady had swindled her and had gone away with extra bucks. The lady had blocked her number and wasn’t answering her calls. She hired a new cleaning lady and got the job done. A few days later, Mngadi got the opportunity to settle the score with that lady.

In another apartment, owned collectively by her and her sister, a tenant was leaving before the termination of the lease, and a new tenant was moving in. This time too, she needed a cleaning lady to clean the apartment. So she asked her sister to call that lady and ask her to come. Unbeknownst to the fact that the caller was Mngadi’s sister, the lady accepted the job and sent her friend to clean the apartment. When the time came for payment, her sister cunningly gave the cleaner Mngadi's phone number and asked her to tell the lady that she’d receive payment from that number.

Plight of domestic workers

When the lady realized she had been tricked, she started pleading with Mngadi, making excuses for her past theft. Mngadi decided to drop the payment but pay her R50 ($3.08) for transportation. A survey cited by Property24 suggests that there are over one million domestic workers in South Africa, and the crime cases, including theft such as this, continue to rise each year. This theft likely stems from these workers through a combination of rising prices and greed. 

SweepSouth reported in 2022 that the deficit between earnings and basic costs for South African domestic workers had doubled since their last survey. Another SweepSouth survey reported that the country has a national employment rate of 27.6%, due to which many of the women are drawn to domestic work. Up to 79% of these workers are sole breadwinners in their families, with an average income between R2,001 ($109) and R3,000 ($160) per month. According to the Economic Research Institute, the average hourly salary of a domestic worker in the country is R71 ($4.38).

Poor lady lost consistent work

Viewers noted how the greedy cleaning lady lost consistency over the extra R350 ($21.57) and praised Mngadi for her brilliant comeback strategy. @masindisono commented, “Sad thing is she could have made a deal to clean for you when you needed cleaning in the future. Then that way there is a partnership there that benefits both parties.” @general_kels_ remarked, “Played like a pro!”

You can follow Lethi Mngadi (@lethi_mngadi) for more interesting stories from her life. 

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