Page 110 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

YOUTH
HOW WE UNEARTHED THE WEALTH
OF OUr pOOr COmmUNITy
Lesley Ramonye talking to Reatlegile Sebe Thuso / Pampierstad Advice Office. Michael Lasky Besent. and Michael Lasky Bessent.
MichAel lAsky besent
MICHAEL LASKY BESENT WAS RETRENCHED FROM HIS jOB AT A MINE AND WAS GIVEN A MEAGRE RETRENCHMENT PACKAGE. THIS INjUSTICE HE FACED FIRED HIM UP TO SET UP AN ADVICE OFFICE TO HELP OTHERS WITH SIMILAR PROBLEMS. HE WAS ALSO INSPIRED BY A SCAT WORKSHOP TO ESTABLISH A YOUTH CENTRE TO UNTAP THE POTENTIAL OF UNEMPLOYED YOUNG PEOPLE IN PAMPIERSTAD.
I am a paralegal working in Pampierstad at Thuso Advice and Development Centre. I started working at the mines in Floria as a crush clerk. When I was retrenched at the mine I was paid a very low severance package which I knew did not match the number of years I worked at the mine. That made me very angry and despondent. I realised that what happened to me might be happening to a lot of other people without resources. That brought me to fight for the rights of people.
I started attending workshops at the Department of Labour and learnt much about the Labour Relations Act. I then started referring people with similar problems to the Labour Department to get assistance, but the problem was I was not getting any feedback. No one was monitoring the progress of cases dealing with unfair labour practice, unfair dismissals, farmworkers living in horrible conditions and young people loitering around without anything to do. I started developing a bug about doing something for our community.
We called a community meeting to inform the community about the plan to start an organisation that would advocate for the rights of our marginalised people. In the community meeting someone informed us that the new South Africa is alive with
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years