Keeping Hope Alive

By Isaac Pinielo
Correspondent | Monday January 25, 2010 00:00

 

Throughout her post-schooling life, she has never had the opportunity to pursue her education, nor has she had any luck in finding a job. Being raised up in a poverty-stricken family, she says she did not have the means to further her studies.

She saw herself leaving her home village of Mmutlane in the Central District to look for a job in the city of Francistown. However, she has never had luck in finding a job ever since she came to the city. 'I have always been rejected whenever I look for a job,' she told Monitor in an interview. Now, the 29-year-old mother of one wakes up before sunset each day and starts walking to the District Labour Offices in Francistown, a few kilometres from where she stays with her uncle in Block One. Upon arrival at the labour offices, she joins hundreds other jobseekers and for the next few hours of each day they laze around under the shade of trees that are in the vicinity with the hope of getting employment someday.

By her own account, spending most of her time at the labour offices is not just a pastime activity. It is a way of keeping her spirits and dreams alive - dreams that feed her susceptible flames of hope. For it is hope that can help the soul put up with qualms of the foreseeable hardships.

'I only hope that at some point I will get a job and live like any other Motswana. Really, I cannot get anything when I stay home, at least here I sometimes get piece jobs for survival,' says Makepe, adding that hanging around at the labour offices also gives her a chance to make contacts. 'It is highly possible that I can get a job by manning the labour offices.'

Having frequented the labour offices for the past three years, Makepe knows the desolations and frustrations of seeing some companies employing or hiring foreigners at the expense of eligible citizens.

'It makes us unhappy to see mining companies around the city employing inexperienced foreign workers right under our noses,' she says.

According to her, this is a violation of the law because as a citizen, she believes she is entitled to a job more than a non-citizen. She accentuates that foreign investment should be meant to benefit Batswana.

She also lashed out at the labour officers for what she described as corruption in advertising employment at the offices. 'The officers have a tendency of keeping some advertisements from us and reserve them for their friends and relatives,' she claims.
Makepe, like many other poverty-stricken youth in the country has been irked by the scarcity of employment. Unlike most youth, she says she managed to hold back the temptations of indulging in criminal activities for survival.

As life in the rural areas has become somewhat unbearable, most urban areas have seen an influx of young people who come in search of jobs. Despite the government's formulation of policies that are aimed at empowering the youth to start their own businesses, most young people feel that these policies are ineffectual.

They also cry fowl over foreign investors who bring their own manpower saying it is akin to exacerbating the unemployment problem in the country.

Last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Phandu Skelemani said the high unemployment rate in the country was worsened by the global credit crunch, adding that more companies were using it as an excuse not to hire more labour.

He also expressed concern at Batswana for not taking advantage of the abundant government programmes such as the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Youth Development Fund and Kickstart that are aimed at empowering them. 'These are programmes that are meant for Batswana to utilise them and create jobs for other Batswana,' he said in a telephone interview.

According to Skelemani, the government is doing its best in trying to create jobs for Batswana, noting that they are doing everything they can so as to attract foreign investors. 'We want more and more investors to come and open businesses here so that they can create employment for the locals,' said the minister who is also MP for Francistown East.

He also added that many Batswana are ignorant of the government programmes that are meant to empower them and that the government is yet to educate people on these programmes. The other problem, Skelemani said, is that most Batswana are reluctant to become their own employers and only prefer to work for others.