Being a black child, coming from a shredded family background is hard enough on its own, an addition of doing work and not being paid for it really feels like petrol on fire. It is hard!

I particularly enjoy thinking around the family because as black, African children our success isn’t ours alone. It is for the rest of the family. The situation is so deep in that other people only get to be in proper houses because of the child that graduated. They get to eat better food because of that one child who made it through to higher education. Thus, we see that the only one who manages to get into a higher institution is not only seen as a reliever, they are seen as a breakthrough, as a curse terminator and everything good to come. So, for as much as one can be able to justify themselves as partaking in unpaid internships to gain experience (which is good), it might be extra challenging to explain this reality to a single mother who struggled to get you into varsity and waits patiently for you to graduate only to be in an unpaid internship. It is devastating.

But of course, these issues go beyond what we can just explain anyway. Inequality existed long before, poverty likewise and as such breaking through takes more years and on top of those added years, you find the very same black child not moving up the ladder, not because they are not financially literate or ignorant or whatever case, but because after all is done and dusted (for us outsiders), the very same child becomes a breadwinner to a family of 6 (his or her siblings and mother included) and as such, they have their own lives delayed. They are unable to start their own families, they engage more in reckless behaviour and the list goes on.

So instead of companies and institutions taking people for a ride, and making them prove their worth and not being paid for it, I think is time something about this is done because not only does it make those who are younger discouraged to study because “there is no use” kuyafana, it destroys the good faith the youth have in the education system and the government at large. If the company or institution cannot afford to pay the graduate, at least make means to provide for their transport to your work spaces, provide their lunch and offer them certificates of completion and refer them to other companies if even after they complete there is still no space, not this thing of offering people an opportunity but they still have to borrow money on top of owing student loans and neighbours etc., – it is humiliating!

And now it is good time to speak about precarious work because this unpaid worker in the time of Corona is hit harder than anyone else, why? Simply because on top of not being paid, not having any benefits, they are unable to finish the unpaid internship which was going to afford them the opportunity to gain experience.

I also feel that universities should also do something about this thing of teaching mostly theory because when we finish our degrees, we have no work experience. From the very first year, create opportunities for students to gain experience (office work, admin, computer, anything) do something to help students build their skills set so to avoid finding themselves in harsh situations of having to adjust to 12 or 24 months of unpaid work.