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By NKOSINGIPHILE MYENI | 2023-06-25
The frustrations of unemployment are seemingly pushing desperate graduates to look for jobs overseas.
However, government has warned that job seekers must first confirm if the overseas jobs are coordinated under the government.
With the World Bank estimating the unemployment rate at 24.4 per cent in 2022, the desperate graduates like Thembinkosi Thwala (33) of Nsangwini and Simolesihle Mamba (26) purport taking their degrees out of the country.
Thwala graduated with a degree in agriculture engineering from Luyengo campus, University of Eswatini (UNESWA) in 2018.
According to Thwala, he has been unemployed for about four years now.
The closest to getting a job was when he was hired by a construction company that was looking for casuals and it lasted for about three months last year.
Other than that, the job market has been silent, he said, appealing to employers to end his frustration.
“I send applications almost weekly but there is no ‘we regret.’ The only time I had been in a job interview was when I was doing my internship for my programme,” he said.
On the other hand, Mamba who also graduated from the same tertiary institution in 2019 with a degree in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering said sending applications was a tedious job.
Mamba said he was already enrolled for an online teaching course that looks for teachers in Taiwan.
While he is still familiarising himself with the recruitment process, he said it involves him taking a week-long teaching course on the internet.
This, he said would place him at an advantage because his name would be recommended to job-seeking schools in Taiwan.
Both Mamba and Thwala do not believe that they may not be getting called to job interviews because they were overqualified.
In 2014, Thwala scooped the first prize in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) essay writing competition against others from schools within the 16-membered blog.
Without a job, some germs of the country feel there are no rewards for hoping to get a job and in the process reminisce on the risks associated with human trafficking against a much sounding warning.
Chairperson of the Swaziland Unemployed People's Movement, Lucky Dlamini, said unemployed graduates had little options as unemployment was catastrophic.
“The issue of the unemployed graduates is a national crisis that needs to be at the top of the government agenda, if we are to stimulate economic growth and change this unemployment catastrophe,” Dlamini said.
He also said challenges with government creating jobs include relevant training and quality education.
Further he said there were glaringly missing programmes for the unemployed youth to empower them to create jobs for themselves, than to be scouting for jobs.
Dlamini was also of the view that mentorship and internships were necessary in job experiences.
He encouraged the unemployed youth to start businesses.
However, he also urged government to prioritise youth businesess by giving them incentives such as tax holidays ‘so that after some five years they would have become sustainable to employ other youths.’
“The youth should be given capital so that they contribute with their skills, creativity and energy in transforming the economy our country. We believe government should remove the burden of paying back the scholarship money of anyone having one degree because it’s a responsibility of any caring government to initiate and invest in skills revolution to address poverty, inequality and unemployment,” he said.
Unemployment should be addressed because it is stripping the dignity of the youth, and demotivated a lot others.
Dlamini said while steering the ship, a quick intervention would be to offer income grants for the unemployed youth which would help preserve their dignity.
He added that this reduced the number of suicides in the country mostly seen within the youth.
“As SUPMO, we have always called and urged government to call an all-inclusive conference on unemployment which would give a clear strategy on how to deal with this crisis. “Unemployment is a ticking time bomb,” he said.
initiatives
Government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said government still maintained the initiatives of ensuring that Emaswati get the opportunity to work and become prosperous, adding that it was the dream of each and every government and the state.
“The efforts by government to open and provide job opportunities for those individuals who are willing to work in other countries such the United States of America and Taiwan to mention but a few include initiatives coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international cooperation in order to ensure that Emaswati do not become victims of human trafficking or greedy exploitation by overseas countries,” Nxumalo said.
He added that where the government had coordinated foreign jobs, it would make sure that there is no Liswati who is exploited under its guise nor remain in an unfavourable working condition.
Nxumalo said government had not forgone creating jobs in the country.
He said this included factory shells which some were being set up in extremely remote and rural areas in order to ensure local jobs.
He further said there were no hostilities if any graduate was aware of the pending scholarship debts so long as they were not working, advising them to come forward to the scholarship recovery consortium.
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