“It’s tough getting employment in SA”
In this year’s budget speech, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan mentioned that allocations for employment programs would increase by 13.5 per cent a year for the next three years. Unemployment has always been a challenge for South Africans, but it is even harder for immigrants who flee their countries to look for employment here.
Gilbert Pindano holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Development Studies from a Zimbabwean state university. However, his degree did not help much in securing him a job when he came to SA. Pindano came to SA in 2008 after a non-governmental organisation he was working for in Zimbabwe closed down.
“Before I left Zimbabwe I had registered to do a Master’s degree but I had to leave before I even started. So when I got to SA my goals were to get a job and continue my studies, little did I know that it would be quite a challenge. I discovered that the systems here were in defect and it wasn’t easy. Since 2008 I struggled with the issue of status: I needed papers. To apply for a general work permit, you needed to be employed first, so I didn’t qualify.
I then applied for an asylum seeker’s permit, but that too wasn’t easy, I spent over a year going back and forth to the Department of Home Affairs. During that time, I was an illegal immigrant and I felt uneasy because there was a risk of being arrested and deported. You have to constantly renew an asylum seeker’s permit. The time between renewal varies: between one and six months, depending on the date that they give you at Home Affairs,” he explained.
While waiting for his permit, Mr. Pindano worked odd jobs. One of these jobs was as a general worker at a construction company, digging, shovelling and plumbing. He was made the official plumber of the company when his employer saw that he had potential and decided to teach him more about plumbing. He spent a year at that job.
Pindano registered at the University of Cape Town (UCT) to study human rights law but did not have any funding. “I had to defer my studies pending funding results. I then managed to get a scholarship in November 2010 but it was still tough because the scholarship only paid for my tuition and nothing else. I then got involved in a separate program, where as part of a team we would go out and educate students. This is where I got to know Equal Education (EE).”
Pindano applied for a junior researcher position at the EE law centre when a vacancy opened up. He started working for EE at the beginning of last year and is now their youth organizer in their youth department. “I think getting a job in SA depends on what you have and the skills you can offer because there are skills in demand. For me it was more about chance, I had to go a bit further, I know many people who have the qualifications but struggle to get employment,” said Pindano.
Pindano is now also the holder of a Masters of Philosophy in Human Rights Law from UCT.
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