South Africa: Unemployed Young People Protest in Nigel, Demanding Jobs

By Kimberly Mutandiro

"We also want to work"

On Thursday, about 60 young people from Alra Park in Nigel protested outside local City of Ekurhuleni offices to demand they be hired as cleaners.

The protesters are members of the Arla Park Youth Unemployment group, which has 77 members. They say jobs at cleaning and waste collection projects have been given to people who don't live in Alra Park and their pleas for employment have gone unanswered since they approached officials in August.

According to community leaders GroundUp spoke to, a three-year cleaning project has just been renewed and the same cleaners have been re-employed. They had expected that job opportunities would be given to other unemployed people from the community.

Nthombi Shongwe said the unemployment rate in the community was dire. "How long do we have to wait to get jobs? We also want to work. The City should add more people to its project," said Shongwe.

Another protester, Mpho Mofokeng, said she has been jobless for years despite submitting CVs at every possible opportunity. "We are hungry. I need to work so I can look after my children."

Precious Mgidi has been struggling to find a job since she matriculated in 2020. "Cleaning jobs are not being advertised. We want transparency."

The protesters were addressed by the City's Segametsi Hope Mosimane and Shadow Shabangu who acknowledged and wrote down their grievances. They promised to arrange a meeting between the community and officials by Friday next week.

Read the original article on GroundUp.

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