Job for pals is killing youth confidence

In my recent visit to Mdantsane, I was happy to see that the government was putting tar on the  street opposite  my home. My  wild horse ( Sikanisi) struggled to get into the yard because of the digging done by the workers. 

The workers helped open the  road for me so that I can park Sikanisi inside the yard.

To my shock my brother,  and his friends were not happy with  this act. They shrugged it off as an act  of  sucking up. 

I later learnt that  only one person in my area was employed in the street tarring  project.  Everyone was taken from other areas. 

When I say my area  I am talking about  12 streets with more than 100 houses. To  add insult to injury the person employed is a "senior youth" who is older than 35 years. 

I know of more than 10 young people who are unemployed in the area excluding my two younger brothers who are both over 21 years-old.

 On Wednesday  while cooking goat meat with a group of young men, a peer who is said to be connected to the ANC  told  us that  they were employing more people for further paving of the road.

To my surprise not even a single person out of the 6 unemployed young people moved an inch.

 I quickly told them I will not dish out the meat until they come back from the meeting.

 To assure them I further told them that the old men (Amaxhego) in the community were still sleeping and the meat cannot be dished out until they are awake.

 I got a shocking response from a close friend. He said: " Hay suka saluka ezi kaka ze ANC ziqeshana ebusuku  zakugqiba zivuke zisibizele  amasimba e community meeting."

What was a light early morning  conversation about women and cars turned into a serious debate about the faults the ANC has made  in my community.

The guys  started among others, questioning the procedure followed when putting tar on the road  and why was it  a rush job.

They also talked about the  relationship between the employed people and the councilor and other senior ANC officials in the community.

From the insults, and complaints that came out of our conversation I realised these young people have lost confidence in government.

They have also  lost confidence in their  neighbours who are ANC members.

  

The ANC was using employment as a tool to divide poor because the unemployed people were blaming the employed for "coming from far and taking jobs in their area," they said.

This made me wonder,

•  is the road paving as the last resort of  spending money in the current financial year?

•   Will the tarred road be of quality or it is likely to be washed away by the summer rain and Sikanisi will not be able to set his four feet on it?

• Who is really benefiting from it?

• If my younger brothers could not benefit from the expanded public works programme in front of their home  where and when will they benefit from it?

• When the ANC says jobs for all does "all" means only its  members?

 If things continue to be like this I will also join the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in praying for the demise of the ANC.

And  as they say  Hlonipha umthandazo wegqwirha no Mhedeni, I am the latter. LET US PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!