Searching for work for 15 years

‘I can do anything. I can cook, I can clean, I can look after kids . . . I want any job’

NONTUTHUZELO Bhiko is from Port Elizabeth’s Kwazakhele township and has battled for 15 years to find a proper job. With four mouths to feed, the desperate 38-year-old mother has submitted scores of job applications over the years – but she has yet to receive any feedback.

She is one of thousands of Nelson Mandela Bay residents who rely on state grants just to put food on the table, and at times even that money is not enough.

The metro has an unemployment rate of 36%.

“Sometimes we go to sleep with empty stomachs,” Bhiko said outside the Port Elizabeth Department of Labour office yesterday.

A member of the DA’s Ngqura constituency, she was accompanied by Bay mayoral candidate Athol Trollip to the office, where she submitted all her details in the hope of finally getting a job.

Her highest qualification is matric. “There are 20 of us at home and there’s only one person working – that is my sister,” Bhiko said.

“I submitted my CV to Transnet, the municipality, Telkom, everywhere, but there is nothing.

“I can do anything. I can cook, I can clean, I can look after kids . . . I want any job.”

Trollip, who is on the campaign trail ahead of the 2016 local government elections, said he interviewed several people queuing at the labour office.

While he believed residents claiming unemployment benefits were being assisted, there was no real solution for job seekers.

“The DA is on a jobs drive to say people without jobs battle with dignity,” Trollip said.

“Joblessness disintegrates families, it compounds our social problems in the community and the biggest problem in this metro is our youth who are unemployed.

“People then turn to drugs and substance abuse.” What is his solution? “As the DA, we are interested in ensuring that [expanded public works programme] jobs are not driven by party affiliation and that we put unemployed people into work to address issues that are really quite simple,” he said.

“You don’t need any qualifications to clean up the environment, pick up litter, fix pavements, fix potholes and so on. “The EPWP is critical.” Trollip would also like to see initiatives with private enterprise through the Department of Labour.

“I think the database needs to be spread way wider than just government departments. It should be public and private sector,” he said.