For six-and-a-half years, Ezekiel Khoza has been unemployed. With only a matric to his name, the 25-year-old from Galeshewe in Kimberley said it has been “worse than a nightmare” trying to find a job.
Part of the problem, he said, was the unfair distribution of land among South African citizens.
“Ninety percent of land and the economy is owned and controlled by the minority. We’re fighting to bring back what is owed to us. Let us just be fair,” he said.
Although Thabo Molale has not been unemployed as long as his buddy Khoza, he has done several odd jobs and short-term contract work, but has never been permanently employed. He dreams of one day becoming a sound engineer.
He completed two out of the three years of his diploma before financial constraints put the brakes on his plans.
“The youth in our town are unemployed; we don’t have skills. We need to do something to help the future generation of children,” he said.
One of the reasons he made the long trip from Galeshewe to Joburg was to fight for education and a change in the high school syllabus.
“We’ve been left behind with the current syllabus,” he said.
Once a pharmaceutical rep, Thabo Kheswa, 26, packed it all in three years ago to become an entrepreneur. There was some promise in the beginning, but business opportunities have since been scarce and he has been unemployed since 2009.
“There needs to be local policies that speak to entrepreneurs and micro-business owners so that we don’t have to swim with the bigger fish, because we’re drowning,” he said.
Dimakatso Ngoasheng, 23, said life was a daily struggle.
Her mother, child and herself survive on the R270 child grant she receives each month.
“It makes me angry that there are no jobs for the youth in this country,” she said.
While Mpho Moyo, 19, is still in high school, she said she had attended the march to protect her future. Set to matriculate later this year, the Orlando West teen is convinced that there will be no job prospects after school.
“The day I put my last full stop on my last exam paper is the day I say hello to unemployment,” she said.
She said it was high time the government realised how serious the youth were in their mission towards economic freedom. “So many youth are turning to crime because they have nothing better to do.”- The Star