06 Dec 2020

Parliament has rejected a motion by Palapye MP Mr  Oneetse Ramogapi calling for government to consider increasing internship allowance from P1 420 per month to at least P3 000, taking into consideration the working conditions and cost of living.

Only 15 legislators supported the motion against 28 MPs, who did not agree.

When tabling the motion, Mr Ramogapi said his intentions about the motion were not politically sponsored, but in consideration of the plight of many young people enrolled in the internship programme.

He said of the three programmes that government rolled out to engage unemployed youth such as Tirelo Sechaba, National internship and graduate scheme, the internship programme was inundated with challenges, among them low allowances and poor conditions of service.

He said government must hasten to review the conditions as the programme was intended to transfer skills and mould graduates.

He said the intern officers were faced with a burden of basic needs such as food and accommodation as the cost of living was skyrocketing.

Mr Ramogapi said when the programme started in 2008, internship allowance was P2 000, but was later reduced to P1 420, which was far below the current demand for trading economics.

He regarded the current allowance as unfair treatment to intern officers.

He said SHE officers with Form Five certificates were paid P3 200 while SHE intern officer got P1 420, which was undoubtedly unfair to a degree holder.

Mr Ramogapi said during the three months of maternity leave, intern officers were not given any allowance and were not entitled to any severance benefits.

He said since 2015, the ministry responsible had promised to place the programme under review with promises to improve its effectiveness, but there had not been any feedback since then. Ends