Unemployed waiting to be seen at Mall Of Africa

While the economic machinery churns inside Midrand’s latest mall, there are those who feel completely left out of the value chain.

Pockets of people could be seen carrying CVs in one hand and hope in the other on 28 April at the Mall of Africa’s grand opening. Siyethemba Nkosi and Lydia Nkonyane are two women who said they had been waiting outside the mall’s gates for two weeks, hoping that an agent would come and let them know of vacancies inside.

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“We went in today, but all the managers are busy with customers, and the mall is crowded so they won’t even know if they are understaffed,” said Nkosi, adding that she will not be coming back to the mall in search of a job anytime soon.

Nkonyane said she will not give up. “I’ve been coming here [religiously] for three weeks. There’s a lady who came here and said they might need us, I will wait for her,” she said.

When asked who the woman was, Nkonyane said, “Her name is Emily, we don’t know the agency she works for.”

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Most of the job seekers said they did not know how to apply for vacancies inside the mall. “Even though we live close by, we [only] heard via television about the mall when they were doing a countdown of the days,” said Nkosi.

A more fortunate bunch was found sitting on the stairs next to the maintenance room at the mall.

“We were hired last night to clean the shops and pack things properly,” said a woman who wished to remain anonymous.

“The agent said she would pay us R100 each for the job.”

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The 15 or so workers said they were waiting for the woman to come and pay them for the work they had done but she had said she was stuck in traffic. “As you can see, the traffic is really bad, we will wait for her, though,” said the woman.

Click here to view all the reactions from yesterday’s mall opening