The metro’s spokesperson, Qondile Khedama, says the fraudsters are impersonating existing Mangaung Metro personnel/officials in the city and soliciting funds from the unsuspecting job seekers.

Khedama warns prospective applicants to refrain from sending money to any person or a recruitment agency alleging to act on behalf of the metro.

He maintains the city’s recruitment processes are done via advertisement and internal Human Resource (HR) processes.

It is unknown how many cases have been reported to the metro regarding the employment scams. 

The scam comes as South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased by 0,5% to 34,9%. This is the highest unemployment rate since the start of Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. The Free State province specifically recorded a 1,6% jump between the second and third quarters of 2021, with the unemployment rate currently standing at 38,1%.

Recently Free State Finance MEC, Gadija Brown, said in her 2021/22 adjustment budget that the province has been in recession since 2018 and the situation was worsened by Covid-19. “Job losses are the most severe and have an immediate impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Approximately 40 000 jobs were lost last year in the province,” said Brown. A clear indicator that Free Staters are indeed struggling to find employment.

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