Some residents of Dan Village in Nkowankowa outside Tzaneen are accusing businesses at the Limpopo Economic Development Agency’s (LEDA) factories of hiring undocumented foreign nationals at their factories.
The former Gazankulu homeland government built the factories which were resuscitated recently. One of the aims of the factories is job creation.
Residents say there is still high unemployment in their village as the factories are not hiring locals.
“Our main concern is employment. We have a problem with foreign citizens who get employment in our workplace while they don’t have proper documentation to be at work,” says a resident.
“National foreigners are most of the people in our community and the surrounding areas (who) are not being employed by the employers. We are very much concern as the youth here, we want to be employed. We are suffering as community members of Dan(Village) because of lack of employment,” says another resident.
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The Limpopo Economic Development Agency’s spokesperson Mthunzi Dlamini says they will engage all relevant stakeholders, including the community of the village in their quest to find a solution to the problem.
“We are aware that there are people around Nkowankowa who are not happy with the employment of foreign nationals in our factories, however, we have decided as LEDA that we are going to have a meeting or engage the community just to find a solution as to why and how best we can actually resolve this matter. We will involve the local forum at Nkowankowa, we will involve our tenants and we will definitely meet and find a solution as soon as possible. We condemn in fact as LEDA, attacks on foreign nationals,” says Dlamini.
Spokesperson for the Greater Tzaneen Municipality in Tzaneen, Neville Ndlala, also says they condemn any form of discrimination against foreign nationals.
“We as greater Tzaneen Municipality condemn all forms of xenophobia and the general discrimination of our African brothers and sisters. As Africans we must embrace each other and live together in harmony,” says Ndlala.
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