Pretoria - More than 60 000 unemployed youths from across the metro’s seven regions have registered for the City of Tshwane’s Tshepo 10 000 youth employment programme.
Yesterday the youngsters started submitting application forms in the hope of being one of 10 000 young people between the ages of 21 and 35 who will receive training and placement in council departments.
Tshepo 10 000 (meaning “hope”), which aims to tackle youth unemployment in the city, will provide candidates for placement in the departments of electricity and energy, water and sanitation, roads and transport, housing and human settlements and environmental management.
“The response has been overwhelming and beyond our expectations,” said council spokesman Blessing Manale.
More than 60 600 young people across the city registered for Tshepo 10 000 last week, said Manale. Mabopane and Ga-Rankuwa had the most young people registered, at 20 074. More than 11 600 young people registered in Atteridgeville and at Pilditch Stadium in the west.
The Pretoria News reported on the queues of young people outside the Atteridgeville community hall last week.
Almost 10 000 hopefuls were registered in Mamelodi and 8 400 in Hammanskraal. Rayton in the east registered the lowest number of young people, at just over 2 000. Bronkhorstspruit and Olievenhoutbosch both saw more than 4 000 registrations.
These numbers exclude forms downloaded from the website.
Young people can submit their application forms until tomorrow at the same venues where they registered.
No late applications or registrations will be accepted.
Manale said applicants have to submit their forms, a certified copy of their ID documents and proof of residence before close of business tomorrow.
Among the scores of applicants at the Mamelodi West community hall yesterday was Sydney Mabetoe, 27, who has been unemployed for more than six years and has taken to gambling to support his three children.
“I have no choice,” he said.
Irene Tsholofelo, 33, lives in a room she rents with her sister and her eight-year-old daughter. She has been jobless for eight years and lives off social grants.
For more information go to www.tshepo10000.tshwane.gov.za or [email protected]- Pretoria News