Residents plead for permanent jobs
A group of fed-up members of the community from Ikageng held a peaceful protest this morning, 4 August 2022, in an effort to display their desperation for permanent jobs.
A group of fed-up members of the community from Ikageng held a peaceful protest this morning, 4 August 2022, in an effort to display their desperation for permanent jobs.
The protest started at approximately 08:00 this morning when residents met at Devils Corner, Ikageng and marched through Beyers Naude Avenue and Wolmarans street to the Dan Tloome local municipal building where they handed over a memorandum of their demands.
The residents said they were protesting to show that they have had enough with the high unemployment in Potchefstroom, whereby the municipality and other organisations are full of employees from other provinces, while many locals struggle to get jobs.
“The municipality is always promising us jobs, but they never fulfil their promises despite the fact that we apply,” Johannes Katisi resident from Ikageng said. “Instead they will ignore our [ Potchefstroom residents ] applications and they will rather employ people from other promises,” Katisi added.
The municipality was represented by the Acting municipal manager, Sandile Tyatya, who was responsible for receiving the memorandum of demands together with the MMC for Community Safety, Leon Musa Mkhabela. In the memorandum, residents demanded that they receive a response within seven days. “Failure to do so, we will embark on a Self Development campaign,” the memorandum read.
According to the protest leader, Bongani Mogome, they have been told that they will be meeting with the relevant municipal employees from the mayor’s office this Sunday, 11 August 2022 at the Ikageng Stadium.
The Municipality acknowledges that a group of people known as the Mass Employment Movement who are residents of Ikageng engaged in a peaceful march to deliver their Memorandum of Demands.
Some of the councillors and officials of the municipality were also present to witness the activity. Members of the Security Cluster were also there to ensure that the process takes place in a safe and secure manner. “The gist of their demands in the memorandum is to be appointed permanently by the municipality and other sector departments around the JB Marks local municipality, preferably in Potchefstroom. They urged the municipality to revert to them within seven working days,” Jeanette Tshite, Acting manager of communication confirmed.
