The agony of jobseekers

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Thursday February 2, 2012 00:00

 

For many of the job seekers, queuing up here starts as early as 2am believe it is the earliest bird that catches the fattest worm. However, this effort usually comes to nought because the early risers find others who spent the night in the queue outside the premises. They sleep on cardboards, some of which we find just outside.

Last week, the throng of job seekers nearly affected the traffic flow as it spilled outside the premises towards the road. A near stampede occurred when the offices opened for business as the desperate job seekers pushed against one another, destroying the main gate in the process. It took the police's intervention to get the situation under control, after which the overwhelmed labour officers used caravans behind the main office to register the job seekers. 'On Monday, I came here as early as 2am to register,' says one job seeker. 'But believe me, I was number 842. I actually felt sorry for those who came earlier.'  Another job seeker says he started queuing before the office opened for business, hoping to be picked by companies looking for workers. 'If queuing up here was a job, I would have long qualified for gratuity,' the man says. 'I virtually live here, but nothing comes my way.'

Though local companies occasionally do come here to hire people, it does not make much difference in the numbers because they keep coming. A part of the problem is that if the job seekers could choose, hardly any of them would accept to work for a Chinese company because, as one puts it, 'nobody wants to be exploited by Chinese any more'.

'What I only want now is to be employed by the mine where I know my family will have decent healthcare through my medical aid and other benefits, not the usual paracetamol. Gape ko Machaeneng  ga o lwala, o chaisetsa ruri,' one jobseeker says. The man's registration number is 705 under those with trades. 'You can imagine that I would have to wait for more than 700 people who are ahead of me to be hired first!' he says. While they await their turn to be registered, the job seekers while away the time by playing cards and mhele.But desperate as the situation of these jobseekers may be, some enterprising people have found in them an opportunity to sell eatables, mainly fat cakes, cigarettes, airtime and sweets.

The huge numbers of jobseekers burgeoned after the closure of textile industries and other companies.  The failure of many young people in the Selebi-Phikwe region to make it to tertiary institutions upon completion of Form 5 has not helped the situation.

Mmegi's efforts to contact the regional labour officer were unsuccessful because he was busy registering jobseekers.  The Commander of Selebi-Phikwe Police Station, Superintendent Victor Nlebesi says his officers are often strained when the jobseekers become restless because it means neglecting pressing problems elsewhere.