On Wednesday cement producer PPC Cement hosted a brick making workshop in Mamelodi East, which aimed at developing the skills of local youth to assist them to participate meaningfully in the economy and escape poverty, said PPC’s plant manager Boitumelo Mnisi.
Despite advertising of the free workshop, the turn-out by Mamelodi youth was unsatisfactory.
Instead, foreign nationals seemed to derive a lot of value from the skills workshop. As unemployment and a skills shortage amongst South African youth continue to cause concern, some young people shun gaining skills in the industries they do not consider “sexy”, such as brick-making.
Mozambique national James Nyandoro, the owner of brick making plant, found the workshop to be highly beneficial and said he had improved his skills.
“It helped me with the skills to make better bricks, which will yield better profits,” said Nyandoro.
When asked why only a few of his South Africans counterparts attended these workshop, Nyandoro, who has been in the country since 2001 – shrugged and said; “they (South Africans) don’t like these kinds of job and say it’s difficult. They are scared of it,” Nyandoro adding that the young South Africans who ventured into these workshops were in the minority.
Through the interaction of Mams FM, the station found out that many young South Africans said this brick making job “ngeyabobhari” (it’s a fool’s job) and refused to participate.
“If you know that you have suffered and you want to provide for your family, you cannot afford to be choosy when it comes to employment,” said Joao Fulani from Mozambique.
Mnisi played down the low uptake by South Africans youth and said even if the majority of attendees were foreigners, “what matters is that they will assist in producing better-quality bricks, which will be used by locals to build our country.”
