Anonymous writes:
I'm writing this letter on behalf of a group of students who are participating in a learnership (Environmental Practice NQF Level 4) at the Mossel Bay Sports WCG e-centre offered by Elgin Community College Recruitment and Induction 2025-2026, in partnership with the Department of Labour of Mossel Bay.
The learnership started on 11 August, the students having signed a contract stating that they would be paid a stipend of R3 000 every last day of the month. They are now four months into the learnership, having been paid only once, in the beginning of October (and not even the full amount of R3 000).
When they try to communicate with the people of Labour, they tell them that the hold-up or delay is at the department (which I assume is the government department). The students believe this is a lie - it's just the corruption we deal with in South Africa.
There is no way that governmental or private bodies in partnership with governmental authorities decided to start a project, recruit people and not have the necessary funds to carry out the project. Surely the department or higher managerial stakeholders did issue the funds to carry it out.
Some of the students had to give up their jobs and drop personal duties to attend and take part in this learnership, since they believed it would come with better job opportunities in the future. Now this is what they are dealing with, attending every day, having no money for transportation to and from the venue, no longer having the ability to afford basic daily needs because the stipend is not being paid.
Mossel Bay Advertiser has sent a query to the Western Cape Department of Labour, but had not received any feedback by the time of going to press. The Advertiser also contacted Elgin Community College, but received no response.
