'We are on our own': The men of Nelson Mandela Drive

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Workers sit along Mahikeng’s main road day in and day out, hoping to be hired for odd jobs, while the government fails consistently to address the issue of unemployment.

28 April 2022 - 14:11

As many as 40 regulars wait daily for work on busy Nelson Mandela Drive in Mahikeng, otherwise known as the N18. The employer gets to choose who they want, but sometimes the job is passed on to the one most in need. “You never really think you’re going to return home empty-handed or return to the same situation you tried to run away from, but it happens,” he says.Like Poenyane, Lebogang Sibeko can’t quite remember how long he has been unemployed. But he knows he’s approaching half a decade without a stable job. He has been a painter for much of his life and remembers a time when painting was not an odd or irregular job.

A few metres from where Poenyane, Sibeko and others wait, 28-year-old Jabu Komokasi prepares to direct drivers to their regular parking spots as traffic picks up. He leaves his village of Letlhakane at 6am, the same time that Poenyane begins pitching for jobs.Before he began working as a car guard, Komokasi dreamt of learning a trade and becoming a professional plumber. But life happened, he says. “I was not going to do this forever, but then there were no funds to go further with school.

Councillors often hire their own people, and even then I don’t think it’s enough to absorb us all. We need serious work.He wanted to join the army and saw working on the street as a temporary way to make a living, but as his personal situation at home worsened and jobs became scarce it became regular work. The common assumption about him, though, is that he is a drug addict or nyaope user.

 

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