Nomatamsanqa Mkokeli, "The motor industry is not a secure place"

Nomatamsanqa Mkokeli, 33, worked for General Motors South Africa, the local subsidiary of the US car giant, for 11 years until she was retrenched in December 2008. She lives with her two children, her mother and brother in the southeastern coastal city of Port Elizabeth. She was the family's main breadwinner.



"Before I accepted retrenchment I worked as a team leader in the factory's warehouse. There were a lot of ups and downs in the work environment at the company, but for me I have to say it was fine except for the last few months.



"They told us late last year that the company was looking for more than 1,000 retrenchments from the workforce, and this made everybody very worried.



"I wanted to have some certainty in my future and the motor industry is not a secure place in the current economic environment, and there is not much hope that it will get better.



"It took me a long time to decide whether to accept the company's package because of my fears over what might happen to my family - to get up every morning and look at them [my family], knowing you may not be able to provide for them, is not a very nice feeling.



"But I decided to go late last year [2008] because I thought that it might be easier to get a new job now than when all the other people become unemployed and are forced to go looking for work as well.



"I am still waiting to hear back from a number of places, but I am hopeful that I will be working again soon in a government job in the area of housing. Even with this new job I will have lost a lot by leaving General Motors because they have many benefits for their workers that make a big difference.



"I think that a lot of families are going to suffer [in the coming period], especially the people who did not use the opportunity to study that General Motors gave you if you worked for them. I was able to get a degree while I worked for them.



"I think many people accepted the retrenchment package because they could not handle the pressure. There had been lots of rumours the company was not doing well and that it might go bankrupt, so that is why people left so easily. The unions wanted us to stay and strike for a better deal, but many people just had enough and took the package."



bc/oa/he