Residents submit a letter demand to management of Protea Gardens Mall
The community of Protea South demands that 99.9% of the residents be employed at Protea Gardens Mall.
On August 31, the community of Protea South embarked on a peaceful march to hand over a memorandum of demands at Protea Gardens Mall.
In a memorandum submitted to the centre manager, residents demanded that the mall should giving people within its demarcation jobs, business and tender opportunities.
Local business forum secretary, Morgan Nyiko Matjeke said the community of Protea South demand 99.9% of the residents to be employed at the mall.
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“As a community we decided to start this march because we have grievances. We are tired of seeing illegal immigrants being employed while we South African citizens who support this mall and who are entitled to job opportunities within this mall are unemployed,” said Matjeke.
Also in the memorandum, residents further demand that the local business forum be recognised as a liaison entity between the community and the Protea Gardens Mall in terms of jobs, business and tender opportunities.
The appointed security company should form a joint venture with local SMEs or a completely new company should be appointed from Protea South.
According to Kulani Nkuna, the centre manager, the issue of unemployment is more of a national issue and there is no law that states that Gardens mall should hire only locals.
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“Since the majority of the issues raised in this document are not new to us and are the ones that we are well aware of, I believe that we will be able to address many of the demands that the community raised,” said Nkuna.
The community demanded to have a round table meeting with the centre manager and the owners of the mall in order to discuss further the response within seven days.
“I believe our march was successful because Boxer manager promised to open job opportunities for some of the residents who submitted their CVs today.
“As residents we will highly appreciate seeing people from our community being employed because it’s not all about promises but it’s about actions,” said a community leader,” Walter Mnisi.
