Byline: Kelebogile Masemola

30 March 2022

Members of SOWIMA (Soshanguve, Winterveld, Mabopane) marched from Block CV Park Mabopane to Sunbake Mabopane industrial site in Tshwane on Wednesday, 30 March 2022.

The organization aims to fight the stigma of young people who are part of the stats of graduates who are nyaope addicts as a result of joblessness.

SOWIMA’s Treasurer, Thabiso Zito Mahlangu said that their youth activists were able to identify that the issue of unemployment in the community is very high and there are economic hubs that are hiring their families and foreigners.

“We are living in conditions that are unbearable as the young people only because the generation before us didn’t create wealth and never preserved opportunities for us.

“2022 we will be marshaling all young people of our society in a program called knock and drop my CV, if we don’t stand up we will remain a generation that is not only landless but we will remain jobless, futureless because the captain of industries continues to exploit us,” said Mahlangu.

He further mentioned that the Human Resources manager at Sunbake bakery is very arrogant when it comes to hiring black people from surrounding areas and when young people visit the bakery asking for jobs they always come up with excuses not to hire them.

“The bakery does not give back to the community, the community service initiative is not implemented and the bakery is not taking care of the community of Mabopane and Soshanguve, the only thing they care about is making profit.

Unemployment affects me due to the things I see happening around, we are hungry for new opportunities but because we don’t have those opportunities we end up straying and getting involved in crime and drugs,” said Jabulile Tsotetsi, a young community member.

The Regional Manager at Sunbake Mabopane, Shona Lalo said that they will get back to the organisers of the march within 7 days as they didn’t know about the demands of the organization prior to the strike.

“Please give us 7 days to respond because unfortunately we didn’t know about your demands prior to this meeting,” Lalo said.