Youth accuse RCL Foods in Mpumalanga of overlooking locals for jobs
March organiser raised concerns about the escalating high unemployment rate in their area.
In Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, a group of unemployed youth staged a protest march to deliver a memorandum to RCL Foods Sugar and Milling. The demonstrators accused the company of not giving local residents fair consideration for job opportunities. Some of the young people involved in the protest had sent numerous job applications to RCL Foods without receiving any replies.
They expressed frustration that positions were being filled by individuals from outside the region, including neighboring provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. One protest participant stated, "We’re sitting at home doing nothing. The biggest problem is that our parents are also unemployed, and they are pinning their hopes on us to put food on the table.
It is claimed that we don’t want to work, which is not true. The problem is that they don’t want to hire us."
Sibusiso Mhlanga, the organizer of the march, highlighted the high unemployment rate in the area as a major concern. He explained that while their focus was initially on TSB, the largest employer in the sub-region, they intended to target other companies as well. Mhlanga stated, "We are starting here because it’s closer to us. Secondly, we have got a lot of companies that we will target, but we know TSB can have a volume, and they’ve got a lot of employees in different categories and fields.
That’s why we are coming here. We are introducing ourselves here to be known in the sub-region of what we are capable of as a youth."
Written by urgent.news from SABC News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
