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Dejected and distressed – this is how 45 interns feel after they were let go by the Gauteng department of e-government.
In 2016, the department advertised internship positions as part of its artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics training programme.
It promised permanent employment once an initial one-year internship was completed.
For many candidates, the offer was compelling enough to leave their jobs in order to take part in the programme and secure permanent employment through the department.
The e-government department spent R2.8 million, as part of the programme’s funds, to fly the interns to Germany to learn about AI.
And it promised them that when they completed their year-long internship, they would be retained on a permanent basis and awarded certificates.
But according to some of the interns who spoke to City Press, these promises were not kept.
The youngsters now find themselves sitting at home, unemployed for a second month.
After being let go by the department in July, one of the programme’s interns, Lerato Kodisang (30) – who is mother to a seven-year-old – said she was stranded.
She had left her previous job as a call centre agent to enroll in the programme, lured by the department’s offer.
“The initial promise was a one-year internship programme, followed by a permanent job,” she said.
“However, we had to sign a new contract six months after signing on for the programme, and at the end of the one-year internship, the department did not live up to the promise it had made.
“It told us interns that we would be contracted for another year, which it called an ‘experiential learning period’.”
Kodisang said the department had justified this extended period by referring to the department of public service and administration, which had recently extended its internship programmes from one year to two years.
Chris Mashele (31), who was also enrolled in the AI programme, confirmed the allegations made by Kodisang, adding that he had lost faith in the government as a result of the treatment they had received from the department.
“I do not have faith in governmental programmes any more because they use people who are desperate to enrich themselves, leaving us distressed,” said Mashele.
“We want e-government to account for what they did because they should have checked up on us – because we applied to them, not their private partners,” he added, referring to the partnership that the e-government department had signed with three companies – Ntsumi Telecommunications, Liaport Africa and IBA Global Training – to address the skills shortage in information technology.
Mashele slammed the AI programme for having misled students about permanent jobs.
He and Kodisang blamed the department for having changed its tune about the retainment agreement, saying they were tricked into signing new contracts which expressly stated that there were no guarantees that candidates would be given permanent positions after their internship.
“I do not have any income. It is hard to sustain myself, let alone my child,” said Kodisang.
“The three-year internship was the worst I have experienced. Although the R5 000 stipend we were given was not much, at least I could pay for my son’s school fees, transport and food. Now I am out of options.”
In all, 34 interns have been left in the lurch; 11 were absorbed by the department.
With regard to the 2016 trip undertaken to Germany by the interns, Kodisang said the venues did not match what the students were promised in the contracts they had signed.
“We slept in a hostel and attended what they called ‘class’ at a nearby church. There was no college or university, like we were promised.”
Last year, the EFF Gauteng chairperson Mandisa Mashego sent a letter to the province’s finance MEC, Barbara Creecy, asking why the beneficiaries of the AI programme did not receive training material and were not secured jobs, as stipulated in their contracts.
Creecy replied that funding for the programme was not the department’s responsibility but that of its three partners in the venture.
She confirmed that the companies running the programme had promised to give the beneficiaries certificates after the training was completed.
According to Creecy’s letter of reply, R56 000 was spent on each beneficiary for services, which included a stipend, accommodation and food.
E-government spokesperson Sithembile Ndlovu denied that the department promised the students permanent employment.
“The department did not promise the learners any permanent positions,” he said.
Mashego told City Press that she had demanded that an investigation be conducted into the matter, and was told that the case had been referred to the Hawks. But nothing was forthcoming as yet.
“At this point I am not even sure who it [the case] is sitting with because we are at the point of escalating it with the National Prosecuting Authority,” Mashego said.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told City Press that he had not heard anything about the matter.
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