30 Mar 2015

When the sun rises, Mr Tiroyaone Morwale (24) trots on a routine path to unknown destiny. 

Unknown destiny because as of next month, there will be nowhere to go as he will be stuck home and ejected from today’s opportunity. After all, these are the perils of a life on a contract with no job guarantees. 

And, it is his believe that had he grappled the last opportunity with both hands, it will be a totally different life story today.  May be he could be a lawyer, teacher, journalist, an engineer or sitting somewhere in a big office enjoying the benefits of an influential post.

Unfortunately, all has been lost between 2004 and 2006 along the corridors of Baratani Community Junior School in Otse, where he was doing his junior certificate. “Hei, rene re tlhaga terata ko morago bra yaaka, rene re tshameka, re sa ithute,” he said with a crestfallen face confessing the root cause of his problem.

After three years at the school, Mr Morwale came home empty handed henceforth he could not advance to the next level.  Since then, Mr Morwale has been engaged by the Ipelegeng programme as a casual labour on an ad hoc basis.

“I am not the only one here, there are form five graduates as well,” he said to make himself feel better.  Among the form five graduates is the 21-years-old Ms Grace Monyatsi, who graduated from Moeding College in 2012.“I did not perform well,” she said to justify why she could not win a government sponsorship to tertiary education despite holding a Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE).

“It is my first time to work for Ipelegeng, I have been staying home so I decided to come here,” she added. The two, according to the Otse North Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson, Mr David Letshoo forms part of the 40 youth who are currently engaged by Ipelegeng out of the 95 workers under his jurisdiction.

Although only 40 are engaged for the time being, Mr Letshoo said majority of the youth from the small village of about 7 636 people are home idling. Besides unemployment and underemployment, the village is also faced with a problem of unskilled youth.

“Le sekole se padile, bana ba rona ba tletse mo,” said Mr Letshoo who believes that today’s generation is disadvantaged by the seismic shift where technology is transforming workplace.

And automation is replacing thousands of jobs opportunities hence majority of the youth who are on their twenty-something years are left in the dark. Further, employers are persuading after experienced workers and reluctant to invest in training new entrants. 

All these together with the snail pace economic recovery add to the unemployment challenge. However, it is Mr Letshoo’s assertion that majority of the young people are not fully applying themselves to seize current opportunities.

For instance, Otse youth prefer Ipelegeng over Tirelo Sechaba, though they could accrue experience through the latter. Worse still, there are those who are heavily indulging in drugs and alcohol abuse and let life opportunities to wane to the dismay of the elders.

Among those is Balete paramount chief Kgosi Mosadi whose jurisdiction covers Otse village.  In fact, she regretted that mainstream youth empowerment programme such as Youth Development Fund (YDF) and Young Farmers Fund are not doing well in the area.

According to the recent district development report, YDF uptake is low in the district as the value of projects approved stood at P2, 4 million out of the P4 million allocated to the district for the just ending financial year.

In terms of creating employment, only 229 people are employed under the programme, hence Kgosi Mosadi believes there is need for more collaboration between stakeholders to save the youth.

Further, LIMID has had only 372 projects implemented in the area since its inception, while alternative packages had had 122 projects and only 59 backyard gardens are operational out of the 151 initially financed. “There is need for these people to have outreach programs for villages such as ours,” said Morwale who confessed having once tried his luck with YDF but was rejected due to unavailability of land.

Apart from him, majority of the youth engaged by Ipelegeng have not tried any of the programs citing insufficient information.  The government has stepped up further to alleviate youth unemployment through part time jobs in addition to other existing programs.

These it is hoped would assist unskilled, educated and uneducated youth to restore their future. ENDS