Thousands of desperate young people queued outside a construction site in Tshwane in search of work, only to discover that the job advertisement that led them to the place was false.
About 1,865 young people were led to believe that they stood a chance to get employed at the Puno Harvest, a construction company contracted to widen roads for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Pretoria last week.
This was after a job ad was widely circulated on social media promising opportunities at the construction site.
But according to the project’s community liaison officer (CLO) Christopher Mahloele, the long queues formed in response to the fake ad highlighted the harsh reality of youth unemployment in the country.
“We have a site establishment next to the mall and when we asked those young people what they were doing there, they told us that they had seen an advert on social media which stated that the construction company is looking for people and that they will be hired between Monday and Tuesday (a week ago).
“We have a lot of young people who are unemployed in our ward, and we have been trying to compile a list so that they become the first to know about job opportunities. But it’s sad to see young people on the streets without jobs,” he said.
Mahloele said they registered the jobseekers on their unemployed data base for consideration when the company decides to open job opportunities.
“The project has not begun but last year we took 16 people for medicals, and they will be coming in to install road sign boards for the construction site. Even when the company opens vacancies for other job posts it will not cater for the 1,800 people,” he explained.
According to ward councillor Saul Ratau, most of the people who were queueing did not only come from his ward, but from as far as Mpumalanga.
“When we engaged with those people who were seeking employment, I found out that they came from Soshanguve, KwaNdebele, Pretoria East and West, Hammanskraal and Mpumalanga. It just showed the level of desperation in our country. People travelled so far over a false advertisement,” said Ratua.
Many of those who queued told Mahloele that they were unsure who made the advertisement, while other claimed they had heard about the opportunity on Facebook and Tik Tok.
Mahloele said the situation left those young people disappointed and frustrated, as no new positions were available at the site.
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