Tunatazama - Community Monitors

The appalling living Conditions in Jouberton Hostel by Kabelo Wageng

Unemployment is a biggest problem in Joubeton Hostel today; it has resulted in massive social problems like poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other related diseases and crime etc Jouberton Hostel, was built in 1947/8 by the municipality to accommodate migrant labours who were coming from the former homelands. In those olden days in this hostel you would mainly find people from he following tribes; ama baqwa (Transkei), mapedi (Lebowa) and a-mabonga. According to the municipal by law only man were allowed to stay in the hostel and it was a punishable offence for a woman to be caught staying in hostel. From the years 1955-1985 the hostel dwellers were experiencing full employment, a situation where everyone was working. This positive economic milestone was due to the mines around Klerksdorp which provided jobs.
Some mining companies which used to operate around Klerksdorp had liquidated, and closed, this meant the retrenchments of workers. Post 1994 many people from the labour sending provinces like Eastern Cape, did not return to their homes after retrenchments, they continued to stay in Hostel hoping to find jobs either in nearby industrial sites or municipality, the reality is full employment for the hostel residents is a matter of history, it cannot be attained anymore. A 48 year old][l Molathlegi ……, a former employee of DRD, (Durban Roodeport Deep) and , said, “it is really hard this days,, to find work you must be educated, my health is not well, yet I still have to have to send money to home for feeding my children, life here in hostel is not good, it hurts to see faces of poverty every day”.
Too many people staying in the hostels around the Klerksdorp townships, life is a shame, you would find extreme hunger and suffering because the mining bosses of today are driven and characterized by greed, self enrichment, nepotism and profits. The social problems at the hostel extend to communities which is why people throughout the country are angry at the mines today.