Amandla! spoke to Siziphiwe Dunjana, now living in Khayelitsha, about what it has been like for her to be unemployed.

I’m part of Cry of the Xcluded. It’s an organisation, a campaign, that is fighting against austerity and budget cuts, fighting for the livelihood of the communities, fighting against unemployment.

Siziphiwe Dunjana: Originally, I came from the Eastern Cape in 2016. I finished my matric in 2015, and then I came here because I wanted to look for a job. I thought that in Cape Town, there are more jobs. But then I came here and found out that it’s the same. In fact, I saw that it’s better in the Eastern Cape than in Cape Town. There are more jobs there. I have had some jobs, maybe a four-month contract, three-month contract. Those kinds of jobs. Nothing else.

Amandla!: If somebody in your family has a job, do they have to help to feed and look after the other members of the family who don’t have a job?

SD: Absolutely. There are two people who are working in my home, so they have to look after our aunt and for us and our children because we are all unemployed. So, if I can get employment, I can also do that.

A!: How do you survive without a job, without an income?

SD: It’s not easy to survive without a job. You have to call people, and people are tired of being called by someone who’s unemployed. The government just gave us that so-called social relief grant. And with that grant you have to buy food for yourself, and the food that you are buying from that money is not enough. I’m too stressed right now because now, in December time, I have to buy clothes for my kid, and I have to buy ‘back to school’ clothes for my kid. But I don’t have money. It’s not an easy life.

A!: Do you always have enough to eat?

SD: No, I don’t always have enough to eat. I have to maybe go to my home, where my aunt is staying, to ask for food there. I have to look around for food, from friends or from other people. My friends are all facing the same problem because we’re all unemployed. 

A!: People who write about these things say that there is starvation, that there are people who seriously become sick from not having enough food, especially children. Do you see that?

SD: Yes, young people who are unemployed are ending up using alcohol and drugs. So they’re ending up going to hospitals. And children whose parents are unemployed are ending up going to dumping sites, eating dirty food, and then being admitted to hospitals. I’ve seen those things many times.

A!: Do you look for work?  

SD: Yes. I’ve been looking for work because there are these online things that they have given us to look for work, and from Facebook and even from local councillors. I’m going to my local councillor to ask. But there’s no job. EPWP does not work for all people. It works for ANC members. And it works for the councillor’s friends and the councillor’s children. If you are not affiliated to the ANC, then you won’t get EPWP work. 

And for me, EPWP work is not good. It will be a job for three months, then after three months, boom, I don’t work. I can say EPWP is slavery work. My friend told me that if you have an appointment to the doctor, you don’t get paid, even if you were at the clinic. 

EPWP work is not good. It will be a job for three months, then after three months, boom, I don’t work. I can say EPWP is slavery work.

I would rather they take EPWP from the tenderpreneurs to the government so that EPWP can be permanent jobs with medical aid and other benefits. The government is supposed to give the money to the local municipalities, but it decided to give it to rich people and rich businesses and sell the jobs to tenderpreneurs. The government must own the EPWP; it must be state-owned, not by the tenderpreneurs. They don’t work. Even if they say a tenderpreneur is working here, but our streets are still dirty. We have potholes. We don’t have toilets. They take the money but they don’t do the work. They just take the money and go around buying our people.

You see others selling their bodies to old papas, others selling their bodies to Nigerians because there are no jobs. The government doesn’t create jobs for us. I think amongst youth, out of 100%, I can say 15% are working. And when there is a job, they say they want experience. How can you have experience? Because you are from school, then you didn’t even go to work, you just passed your matric, then you want a job, but they want experience. Where will you find the experience? Because the experience that we have is from the books of the school, not from work.

A!: Why do you think there aren’t jobs in South Africa? What’s the reason?

SD: I think it’s because of budget cuts and austerity. If the government didn’t cut the budget for the local municipalities, there will be more jobs for our communities. 

A!: Are you part of any organisation that’s trying to fight against all of this?

SD: Yes, I’m part of Cry of the Xcluded. It’s an organisation, a campaign, that is fighting against austerity and budget cuts, fighting for the livelihood of the communities, fighting against unemployment. We want the government to create jobs for our people so that we can live the same lives that the rich people are living. We also want the government to stop taxing the poor people. They must tax the rich people because they have all the money that the government needs.

We’re managing to mobilise people. We have managed to challenge the government about the Basic Income Grant. We don’t want the R370 grant. R370 is not enough. Even the child of Ramaphosa can’t take lunch with R370. We want R1,750 for unemployed people to survive. They must tax the rich so that the money will come to us.