The management team at Temperature Lounge located in Khomasdal recently advertised six positions for a walk-in interview. Much to their astonishment, more than 2 000 people showed up on Friday, which resulted in such a chaotic scene that the establishment's gate collapsed due to pressure from the job-seekers to be granted the opportunity for an interview.
One of the managers at the establishment, Ndeshimana Nghimwena, said they were thus forced to cancel the interviewing process, and only collected CVs.
"We are busy shortlisting the candidates according to experience, and the shortlisted ones will come in for interviews from Monday (today). We will try and take in as many as we can," she told New Era on Friday.
She said it was a call-out for six positions, namely floor manager, bar manager, kitchen staff as well as waiters and bartenders.
"We usually have people e-mail their CVs, but decided to do a walk-in interview as we didn't expect this many people to show up looking for jobs. This is so heartbreaking," she noted.
Nghimwena added that it was extremely disheartening to inform potential applicants to "only submit their CVs and go back".
She remarked that no one had any idea that so many people would show up for six jobs, and described the incident as demoralising and shocking.
"When I was looking through the CVs, most of the people have degrees. When you look at somebody's CV and see that they had finished their bachelor's degree three years ago but are at the point of looking for any job, that is truly heartbreaking," she continued.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Nghimwena said in the past, most of the recruited staff were students looking for part-time jobs. However, she recounted that many of the current job applicants have enough work experience in other areas, while some have multiple qualifications.
"Something needs to be done about the unemployment rate," she urged.
She then suggested that government implements employment-creation projects, and pleaded for the country to reduce importing goods which can be manufactured locally. Potential job applicant Laurentia Roman told this publication that it is so "demotivating". "It was so sad that the youth had to turn out like this for six positions at one place since 04h00 in the morning.
People even broke down the entrance gate because that's how desperate they are to get jobs. The unemployment rate is very high.
It's not even a joke. Something has to be done".
Fellow job-seeker Vanesa Kapuini said "we graduated, but there are no jobs. So, we are just taking any work that we find". Katjana Petrus told New Era: "I don't know what to feel now because of what I just witnessed. I just need any job now because it is hard to survive in the city".
