Johannesburg - The office of the Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, and the MMC for public safety Dr Mgcini Tshwaku, have committed themselves to prioritising the coloured community in service delivery and job opportunities.
This comes after members of the Westbury community returned to the streets as they protested over a lack of job opportunities at some of the key government departments in the area.
Two weeks ago, the community, led by Bishop Dulton Adams and Councillor Ronald Harris marched to the Helen Joseph Hospital, Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Social Development’s Westbury Transformation Development Centre (WTDC), South Bekels, JMPD offices, Shoprite and Sophiatown police station.
Yesterday, the community returned to the same institutions after having handed over their memorandum of demands for inclusion in job opportunities.
Speaking to the community following yesterday’s march, Dan Bovu from the premier’s office said while Lesufi was not available to personally address them due to other commitments, he was serious about giving the coloured community employment opportunities and had deliberately earmarked some of the job opportunities to ensure that they got employed by the provincial departments.
“We want to respond to your cries that say we find ourselves as people who are not white enough at that particular time and not black enough at this particular time… The premier wants to do away with racism. On June 16, the premier would have also chosen places with coloured people for the application for his employment and job programme.”
Bovu called for the coloured communities across the province to apply for advertised jobs in the province.
“You would have seen that for the crime-fighting wardens, a new advertisement has been issued again deliberately. That advertisement deliberately says we are calling for communities such as coloureds and Indians to apply. It is written in the advertisement that we want Indians and coloured people to apply because we are going to this constituency. It is our call that our residents use that opportunity,” he said.
Addressing the community outside JMPD offices, Tshwaku said his department would ensure that it prioritised the coloured community in all its new posts and job opportunities.
“We respect the coloured community. We believe that they must have the same opportunities as black communities. We have to fight for the coloured communities as much as we fight for black and Indian people who do not have access to land and other opportunities. As a department, we want to ensure that the demographics of the department reflect the demographics of the coloured community. Coloured people must get equal opportunities, and we will not hesitate to deviate in order to achieve that,” Tshwaku said.
Adams said the notion that coloured people were drug addicts and criminals must come to an end.
The protests are also in reaction to the amendments to the Employment Equity Act, which Adams said the coloured community would be adversely affected by.
“This bill is directed to coloureds. This amendment bill will not affect white people. When it comes to us, we will be hardest hit by this bill as coloured people; we actually feel marginalised by this bill.
“We want to put an end to the notion that we are drug addicts and criminals… We are going to deal with those who do not want to meet us. We must take the fight to South Bekels, who are refusing to see us,” Dalton said.
The Star