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Dept of Social Development is in violation of the constitution regarding the graduate programme.

It is sad that social work graduates who worked so hard to obtain their degrees; up to this date, are not employed, even worse, they are left in the dark as to what is their fate with regarding employment with the department.

Section 32 of the constitution provides for the right to access to information, also known as the right to know. Section 32 states that “Everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state; and any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.”

Therefore the department has a duty to inform students about the development of the issue that is affecting them; however the department chooses to be mum, and provide student with false hope of “soon” which is not sufficient and does not comply with section 32.

This is a total violation of the constitutional principle of accountability, responsiveness, and openness which the department ought to uphold, promote and enforce.

MEC Weziwe Thusi (KZN Department) and Minister Bathabile Dlamini have not been truthful to graduates, by deliberately providing conflicting information with regard to this matter. The MEC is blaming the Minister, while on the other hand, the Minister is blaming the MEC. With all that, it is unemployed graduates who suffer.

The fact that the Department is not informing graduates about the negotiations with the treasury (if any negotiations took place) is alarming. This makes one think that the department is withholding information which might hamper their integrity or that might expose their incompetency which is not the case because everyone one knows except idiots, how incompetent the department is.

Youth unemployment was at 36.1%, and jobless youth made up 75% of the country’s unemployed, said Lehohla in Citypress. The treasury in his “official” Facebook page wrote that he takes the matter of youth unemployment seriously. It is the shame that up to this date, the Treasury has not made the decision to release the funds to employ newly qualified graduates, and then the treasury’s rhetoric was nothing but a publicity stunt.

With access to information, the irony is that, it is far too easy to get hold of the minister than MEC Weziwe Thusi. No matter how many times you can request the email of the MEC, chances are - if you are a graduate to annoy her about issue of employment, zero.

In his speech, the chief whip of the opposition John Henry Steenhuisen, said “those people who making chaos today about this issue (the motion of no confidence against the speaker Baleka Mbethe) they won’t be here when we debate unemployment”

Speaking of which, I wish that this government, which has guts to defend the president with buttocks, also use all its buttocks to defend the constitution, and address the issue of youth unemployment. 

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