GALLERY: Youth demand jobs now
The youth gathered together at the Tzaneen show grounds and made their way to the municipal offices in songs of struggle, stating that the Mayor, Maripe Mangena was causing them grief.
Youth of Tzaneen and surrounding areas gathered to protest to the Greater Tzaneen Municipality last Friday.
The march was aimed at issues relating to service delivery, youth unemployment and the outsourcing of extra security which were answered to by the municipality’s mayor, Maripe Mangena and the municipal manager, Thapelo Matlala.
The youth gathered at the show grounds, marched to the taxi rank and continued to the municipality on Friday morning.
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“This march was organised by the youth, for the youth. It has no political affiliation to it, we are just trying to get our voices heard and our questions answered by the respective parties,” stated Thulasizwe Shingwenyana.
During the march, the youth sang a song stating that they are displeased with how their mayor has been running his office.
Meanwhile, on arrival at the GTM offices, the crowd broke up from their structured march formation, with some of the crowd, disgruntled and climbing onto the concrete structures outside the municipality.
“We will not leave this place until we have spoken to the municipal manager and the mayor of this municipality. We put them where they are yet till this day they cannot even consider us for advertised posts, instead they want to share the information amongst themselves which is not right. We want answers. Some of us here are qualified but our qualifications are gathering dust as those in power continue to grow greedy. It is either we as the youth start being taken seriously or the mayor himself should step down because he isn’t helping us with anything,” stated an angry protester from the crowd.
When the mayor came out to address the marchers, they got even more angry since he walked out with bodyguards that were allegedly hired from KwaZulu Natal.
“We don’t want to see the people that are standing next to you. They are not our people and they should go back to where they come from. They know nothing about our local municipality and they cannot be associated with our municipality. They must go,” chanted the crowd as they pointed to the bodyguards.
The situation was kept calm by the police but that did not make the protestors less hungry for answers.
During the reading of their memorandum, they mentioned needing access to jobs, completion of projects and employing local people instead of outsourcing were some of the things they demanded.
They made clear that if these things cannot be provided, he should step down.
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As a reply, Mangena told the crowd that he would need seven days before giving them any response as he would have to first discuss the contents of the memorandum with his council.
“Because we received the memorandum in the form of writing, the response too will be in writing once proper procedures have been taken by myself and the council. I have heard your plea and will consider doing better as your mayor,” he stated.
Mangena then continued to sign the memorandum handed to him and asked that people be allowed to carry on doing their jobs without any disruptions from the crowd.
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