The joy of finally attaining a qualification has turned into a nightmare for many graduates. Many struggle to find jobs after graduating as the unemployment queue becomes longer and longer.
Last week, Stats SA released unemployment figures showing that unemployment among young people is 55.2% in what has been described as a crisis. Stressed out, drowning in debt and facing the possibility of being blacklisted, this is a bitter reality for many, currently.
Many are trapped in the cycle of sending CV after CV with no luck, some for years on end. The levels of unemployment are not exactly helping the situation.
South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
Although political parties have job creation in their manifestos that they were punting pre-elections, graduates say they are simply forgotten as soon as votes are cast.
When Mitchell Makgamatha, 29, graduated with a BA degree in Conservations, Tourism and Sustainable Development in 2012, she didn’t think she would have to join the unemployment queue, at least not for so long. Fast forward to 2019, Makgamatha is still job hunting.
“You can imagine, it’s just been a struggle to get a job until today, I have been taking menial jobs here and there, any kind of job that is offered to me I have to take it because I have a daughter to take care of.
“I can’t just sit at home,” she said. She says it’s been difficult.
“When you go to university you think, at 29 you will have your apartment, car and progressing,” she said.
She says she is stuck with National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) debt and it has been harassing her to pay the debt.
Another challenge, Makgamatha says, is being told every time she applies they only take people with experience.
Bonga Myeni, 28, who graduated with a Recreation Management Diploma, says when someone graduates there is pressure that is put on them to find a job and help the family.
“I think for me, there is a lot of pressure for some reason they believe that once you have graduated, you at least have to find a job and help your family out only to find out that jobs are not as easily found, you struggle with the fact that you have been studying for about three years and as soon as you are done
“You are sitting at home and you have nothing to wake up for,” he said.
He says he doesn’t believe politicians. “Unfortunately, I don’t really believe them, at the end of the day they are also trying to feed themselves so they will say anything,” Myeni said.
Myeni is currently sitting with a debt of R80 000 which he says will soon land him at the Credit Bureau.
Zone Xeliphole, 28, a Public Relations graduate, says she didn’t get her certificate because NSFAS did not settle her debt.
“Everywhere I look for a job they tell me they want three years experience and I don’t have that and I only did practical work,” she said.
Sadly the tale of these three graduates, is one of many across the country who have had to rely on menial jobs to make ends meet.