There were tense moments among some residents in Mangaung as they demanded more time to speak to President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Presidential Imbizo held in the Free State on Saturday.
Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu had to intervene.
“You’re supposed to give the person who is deaf an opportunity to present and all we ask for is to have some order be a queue and not behave like this. We have one representative who wants to speak about issues of young people in terms of education,” says Zulu.
Earlier, residents from several towns in the Free State spoke about the poor state of roads, jobs and government services. They were gathered inside marquees at the Dr Rantlai Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein.
Residents say service delivery is almost non-existent with intermittent water cuts, roads in a state of disrepair and refusal taking weeks if not months.
[PHOTOS]: President @CyrilRamaphosa leads Government at the #PresidentialImbizo currently underway in Mangaung, Free State#LeaveNoOneBehind pic.twitter.com/7s2CohTtEU
— Presidency | South Africa ?? (@PresidencyZA) April 9, 2022
Presidential Imbizo heads to the Free State
Unemployed social workers want permanent employment
A group of unemployed social workers have appealed to president Cyril Ramaphosa to help them to have permanent employment.
Amahle Nakasa says they don’t want internships only, but want to be employed full time .
“As Dlamini Zuma mentioned, there is a rife GBV (gender-based violence) in Bloemfontein. In fact, it’s second pandemic in South Africa as a whole. There is [a] problem with drugs and those require a social worker services. And social workers are there and unemployed. So all we are asking Mr President is that there must be enough allocation for funding of social workers on a permanent basis,” says Nakasa.
