Several interview candidates took the first trip using the Western Cape Government’s free transport voucher with Golden Arrow Bus Services. Picture: Shakirah Thebus
Cape Town - Job seekers wanting to get to their interviews are getting a free ride.
The Western Cape government on Thursday launched a pilot project to give job seekers, heading to interviews, free travel vouchers on Golden Arrow buses.
The launch of the ‘Getting YOU to Work’, pilot project took place with Premier Alan Winde and Mobility MEC Ricardo Mackenzie, at the Kismet Building in Athlone, yesterday.
Winde and Mackenzie joined several interview candidates for their first trip using the transport voucher which is in the form of a Golden Arrow gold bus card.
Interview candidate Latita Memani from Langa, now residing in the Cape Town CBD, said: “It’s very difficult to go to interviews without transport, knowing that you don't even know if you’ll be taken or be rejected.
“So it's a very good opportunity for us.
“We are just hoping that everything goes well and we get the job that we’re looking for.
“Most of the time when the job interviews come up, it comes at a difficult time during the month where there is no money.”
Mackenzie said: “The department formulated this project and we got our partners on board which is GABS because they have the availability off peak to carry hundreds of thousands of people in the City and their reach is across the City of Cape Town.”
The launch was also a way to ask more companies to partner with the Western Cape Government to ensure the success of the project. The Western Cape Government hopes to see 180 000 off-peak trips done.
Mackenzie said the voucher is for anyone with a confirmed interview with one of its registered companies.
The company partners with the department and the employer would then inform the interview candidates to register online to receive their card from a GABS kiosk, bus station or GABS van.
The card is loaded with 12 off-peak trips and employers are urged to schedule interviews during off peak times.
Premier Alan Winde said: “For me, everything that I tackle at the end of the day is about a job or jobs. If we reduce our unemployment rate, we then solve crime problems. My mantra is ‘Nothing stops a bullet like a job, nothing gives you dignity like a job and nothing puts food on your table like a job’, so how do we make sure that we are understanding of what the issues are around jobs… We know from our conversations with young people that to even get to an interview when you have been unemployed is very difficult. You've got to borrow money to be able to get to that interview.”
Companies wishing to partner with the department can email service@ westerncape.gov.za, call 0860 142 142 or visit the Western Cape Government website to register.
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za