A GRADUATE AND HIS ANGRY PARENTS- Rethabile's story

Photo credit: mghclaycenter.org

Both Rethabile's parents were from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, so you could imagine the joy they and their parents felt when they got their first jobs. "Well done! You have made the family proud." His grandparents probably said.

For a black child, the only possible fields of study during the apartheid era were either nursing or teaching. Take a guess what Rethabile's parents ended up studying. Fast forward twenty years post-apartheid, and he, too, wore some beautifully handmade regalia and celebrated graduation day. He was a proud university graduate with dreams and hopes and a smile, wider than a Samsung curve television. Suddenly, it all turned gloomy. As gloomy as Cape Town weather.

What Rethabile's parents failed to realise was that he was part of a generation blessed with options. What Rethabile didn't realise was that he was lead by a corrupt and dysfunctional ANC government. So, where did it all go wrong?

A year after graduation, he enrolled in an internship programme with The Department of Foreign Affairs. A seemingly great opportunity with only a university degree representing experience. R 4000 a month paycheck with lots of emailing and faxing and quotation collecting. Is this what the workplace is all about? It seemed a very mundane and inaccurate excuse for a job but, the positive nature in him forced him to call that period a learning curve and era.

The R 4000 paycheck angered his parents. Over R 300 000 spent on university fees. Retha only got R 4000 as a stipend. That did not make sense to them. It was his first job after university. That fact seemed to have slipped their minds.

Unsurprisingly, Rethabile didn't love what he did at the Department. After a few months on the job, he started becoming angry. He started losing considerable interest in the Department and how they ran it. Rethabile witnessed how lazy and corrupt his superiors were, but what surprised him the most was when his contract failed to get its promised renewal. Like an old overused rag doll, he was chucked out and asked never to return. As much as he hated the job, it hurt that they didn't consider him permanently. His mother, being a woman, felt his pain and tried her utmost best to comfort him. Rethabile's father, on the other hand, assumed that he did not work hard enough to earn a renewal on his contract, "work damn harder next time", he said. He likened Rethabile's failer to receive a new employment contract to that of Steve Leokolea when Steve's football contract got terminated by Orlando Pirates. To this day, Rethabile still doesn't understand the analogy and comparison.

Retha got blessed to move to Miami and start fresh. The ocean, the skyline, the night scene and new faces. "Oh! What a Beautiful City" Rethabile exclaimed. Were things finally looking up? A new beginning and rising hope looked to be on the horizon. What he should have expected was that Miami was far more expensive than East London. The rent in Miami was double what he was used to paying and, grocery shopping cost more than what Pic n Pay used to offer him. Rethabile's father would now and again call him and ask how much he had been saving. "How much do you have in your savings account, son" he would ask. Rethabile's answer was often not what his father expected, and that only infuriated him more. It made him even more disappointed in his graduate son. "Nothing this month, dad", Rethabile responded. You could sense the disappointment in his silence like a buffalo senses a lion when being stalked.

To be continued...