City of Tshwane chairperson of Section 79 Committee chair on economic development and Spatial planning and Ward 15 Councillor Joel Masilela has taken it upon himself to make sure that local residents in his ward get employed by Balwin Construction Company with immediate effect.
At the moment Balwin Construction Company is running various projects in Ward 15 and local residents have complained to Councillor Masilela about the fact that they as local residents are being overlooked for jobs at the said projects, and that such jobs are given to people who do not live in the ward and also to foreigners.
There was a verbal heated confrontation between job seekers and private security company at Balwin constuction site but no casualties.
Speaking to Tshwane Talks on Wednesday Masilela said the following:
“Generally, in life there will be sins of incumbency, which means those in office may be tempted to wrong things, so it is important as a leader to engulf oneself with other interest groups wherein one is a leader.”
He said this with reference to the wrongful and unfair decision whereby local residents have been overlooked for jobs which should by law have been given to them by those who are in charged, of hiring people at the Balwin Construction Company projects.
“Now to correct the present situation, we are therefore going to invite people from various sections in Ward 15 to participate in a Project Steering Committee (PSC), which will be led and directed by myself as a public representative who has been elected by the people, to make sure that the direction we take in this matter is of benefit to the people that I lead as a Councillor,” said Masilela.
“Representatives of the people to the PSC will be people who reside in sections of Ward 15 to make sure that local residents are truly represented,” said the Councillor.
Masilela personally visited all the Balin Projects with residents who carried their CVs to show that they deserve to be employed by Balwin Construction Company.
At some projects Masilela and the residents found illegal foreigners working without documentation and ordered the said foreigners to stop working immediately.
A meeting was then held between Masilela, residents and Balwin Properties Contracts Manager Jackie Geldenhuys.
It was agreed that community members should leave their CVs and contact details at the company’s offices for the sake of employment.
More than 700 residents had gathered at the construction site as jobseekers.
Addressing the Ward 15 residents later on, Masilela stated that all people who are sleeping and working at the construction site must take a back seat and wait until all local residents have been employed.
Various lists of people seeking employment were then drawn up according to the sections of the Ward 15 like Extension 24, Nellmapius and Buffer Zone so as to strike a balance of those who will be employed and not be one-sided to some sections only.
“We have been here since 2015 building residential houses and more than 70% of the people working for us here come from Mamelodi, yet some people are not happy about,” said Geldenhuys.
He revealed that he hasn’t seen the project’s CLO in a long time as the said CLO has apparently been fired from his work because the community was not happy with him.
He stressed that he would hire more people depending on the performance of the economy which was negatively affected by Covid-19, leading to the number of people buying houses decreasing.
Ward 15 resident from Nellmapius Extension 8 David Kanyane praised Councillor Masilela for his efforts in finding jobs for residents of his ward and said this shows progress and that it is what the community needs.
Extension 10 resident Maria Msiza told Tshwane Talks that he has been following and supporting Councillor Masilela for many years now in his efforts to find jobs for residents and that she has been unemployed for five years now and been working as a volunteer all along.
Emmanuel Matemane of Extension 22 in Ward 15 told Tshwane Talks that he was pleased about the fact that Ward Councillor Masilela has made efforts to get job opportunities for the people of Ward 15, especially the youth.