Rejected Job Applicants Call for Probe of Dept Processes

The management of North West department of community safety and transport has been accused of nepotism for allegedly recruiting government officials' relatives for a traffic learnership programme and ignoring young people with no such connections.

- Masoka Dube

The squabble between the young people and the department began last month.

The unsuccessful applicants approached local community leaders and political parties for help.

One of the applicants, who asked not to be named due to fears of reprisal, said some officials in the department had told them they were intentionally being sidelined to make way for politically connected individuals.

"In March this year, the department advertised vacancies for traffic officers' learnerships," said the angry young man.

"We applied and were called for interviews. But none of us was recruited despite meeting all the requirements.

"The insider told us that they replaced us with family members of ANC and government officials.

"We need authorities to investigate the matter."

Another source close to the situation said when Wessels Morweng took over as the MEC, he instructed the officials to re-advertise the vacancies and "that is where things went wrong".

The source said: "Most applicants who were not recruited met all the advertised requirements.