eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba. The mayor's office has revealed that the City, in partnership with the business sector, will soon roll out a programme to train and place local residents in jobs previously occupied by undocumented foreign nationals.
Image: eThekwini Municipality / Facebook
The business community and the eThekwini Municipality has announced a programme aimed at skilling locals to take up jobs that have been left vacant following the departure of foreign nationals. The areas of focus include the textile, machinist, hospitality, and other service industries. The eThekwini Clothing and Leather Council estimates that close to 5000 jobs could be vacant but has added that filling these positions would be extremely difficult.
Thousands of foreign nationals have been leaving the country, returning to their countries of origin, following growing pressure on illegal migrants to depart. These departures have resulted in numerous vacant jobs. Recently, the Labour and Civic Organisation (LACO) announced that it had placed close to 4000 South Africans in jobs following pressure on companies to replace foreign workers with locals.
The eThekwini mayor’s office revealed that, in partnership with the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it will soon roll out a programme to train and place local residents in jobs previously occupied illegally by undocumented foreign nationals.
“As part of the initiative, eThekwini Municipality mayor Cyril Xaba met with the CEO of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Palesa Phili, and stakeholders from the clothing and textile sector to explore ways of fast-tracking the training of machinists to meet growing industry demand.
“The municipality also plans to expand the programme to the hospitality sector and scooter delivery services supporting the retail industry, creating more employment opportunities for local residents while addressing critical skills shortages in these sectors,” it said.
One representative from the eThekwini Clothing and Leather Council stated that while they were not part of the meeting, the situation is dire and poses a serious threat to the industry in eThekwini. The organisation had previously admitted to hiring foreign nationals, including some who might have been in the country illegally.
It had stated that it had been unable to find locals interested in the jobs, especially the job of a machinist, which is central to its operations. It added yesterday that finding a person in this area locally is still difficult, pointing out that 18 posts had recently become available and not a single one has been filled to date.
Thanasagren Rubbanathan Moodley, spokesperson for the organisation, said: “It will take about six months to train locals, but we have no choice; it has to be done,” adding that it must be made clear that their fight on the issue is about saving local jobs.
“In our industry, where we employ close to 10000 people, about 50% of that workforce consists of foreign nationals, while only about 50% are locals. Without the foreign nationals doing their part, the local jobs will not survive.” He added: “You have to understand that even if we have to train the locals, who is going to train them while the business simultaneously has orders to fulfil? You can train someone for one month, and they leave, and you have to start all over again.”
“If we wanted to train the locals, we should have gotten the foreign nationals already working there to train them, keeping in mind that all these machines used in the textile industry are not the same,” he stated.
He also noted that even the industry itself is not conducive to attracting people to these positions. “The fashion industry dictates how much they will pay for a garment, meaning the only way for companies to be profitable is to produce large volumes. The machinist job is therefore labour-intensive because you have to produce many garments; however, it does not pay at least minimum wage as it cannot afford to, so you are working hard for less than minimum wage.”
He warned that if skills are not found in the coming weeks, the companies will close down, meaning that even locals will lose their jobs. “Some people are closing down, and others are thinking of taking their businesses elsewhere.”
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