A queue consisting of thousands of people snaked all along the Athlone Stadium, as jobseekers gathered from all across the city to find employment-painting a grim picture of the unemployment crisis affecting the City.
Thousands of people were provided with transport from various pick-up points across the City for the Jobs Fair and service delivery initiative hosted by the Department of Employment and Labour in collaboration with the City of Cape Town, at the Athlone Stadium.
The two-day Jobs and Career Fair commenced on Thursday and will continue today from 8am to 4pm.
The Jobs Fair is an initiative by the department’s Public Employment Services (PES) branch and aims to bring jobseekers closer to prospective employers or provide learning opportunities.
Jobseekers, youth, women, and people with disabilities were encouraged to attend.
Jobseeker Iviwe Komani from Khayelitsha, 24, said she has been unemployed for a year.
“I heard they’re registering for employment so I came since I’m unemployed and doing nothing, so I had to come and apply.”
Komani said she was able to find out more about available learnerships and applications to colleges and universities.
“It's very difficult (being unemployed) because everything costs money… It (Jobs Fair) is bringing hope.”
Another jobseeker mentioned that they would not have seen this many people present had transport not been provided.
Another jobseeker Siyanda Nkosemntu, 28, from Nyanga said she has been struggling to find employment for two years.
“Every company here is assisting so I have hope.”
Deputy director Labour Market Information and Statistics and Planning at the provincial office, Venessa Cupido said job seekers were able to register as job seekers with the department, access career counselling and get help on how to structure CVs.
There were also around 45 exhibitors from banks, universities and colleges, and various departments and sectors, to assist interested job seekers.
Available vacancies were also displayed on a large screen where career counsellors were stationed.
Cupido said they catered for 4 000 people over the two days.
Assistant director Public Employment Services in the department Freda Camphor said there were formal jobs, learnerships, internships, and contract jobs on offer.
“When people register on the database, they will be matched with the available opportunities that's open in the system. So after they are matched, the practitioner will screen them, phone them to find out if they’re available to participate in the job selection process,” Camphor said.
On Wednesday, the department said Minister TW Nxesi, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande and Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams would host employers at an Employer Engagement Session, on Thursday, forming part of the Jobs Fair.
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za