Dear Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour,
I write as a young South African who cannot get a job. I am a matric graduate with a Bachelor pass from class of 2024. Since then I have applied for retail jobs at Shoprite, Mr Price, Pick n Pay, Woolworths and many other places. I wake up every day looking for work but there is nothing. My question is simple: How can this country continue to fund so many asylum seekers and foreign nationals with grants and jobs when South Africans are crying every day for jobs? We are told there is no money for South African youth, no jobs for us, no support. Yet we see grants being paid, businesses hiring foreign nationals, and money being sent to support other nations while we at home can barely survive because of inflation. Food prices, transport, electricity, everything is going up but our chances are going down. If the Employment Bill is going to be amended then it must put South Africans first. South Africans must be first in line for jobs, for grants, and for opportunities in our own country. I ask that the Bill ensures South African citizens are given priority for all entry-level and retail jobs, that employers stop preferring foreign nationals because they will accept lower wages, that social grants and state support are prioritized for South Africans who are unemployed and struggling with inflation, and that labour inspectors actually enforce the employment of South Africans first. We cannot build this country if our own youth are left with no work, no hope, and no future. Charity must begin at home. Fix unemployment for South Africans first.