Background checks hinder job prospects for reformed young offenders
As we debate the future of our communities we must not lose sight of one of the greatest challenges facing many young South Africans today: the burden of a criminal record obtained during their childhood or youth that continues to punish them long into adulthood.
Across our communities there are young people who made mistakes while growing up, mistakes often driven by poverty, peer pressure, difficult circumstances or simply youthful immaturity.
Some committed minor offences, paid their debt to society, and have since turned their lives around. Yet years later they continue to carry the consequences of those mistakes every time they apply for a job, seek an opportunity or try to build a better future.
A criminal record for a minor offence should not become a life sentence. We must ask ourselves whether our current approach truly serves the interests of justice and rehabilitation.
If a young person has served their sentence, demonstrated positive behaviour and is committed to becoming a productive member of society, should we continue to close every door in their face?
The reality is that many employers conduct background checks and a criminal record, even for a minor offence committed many years ago, can immediately disqualify someone from employment. This creates a cycle where people who want to work and contribute are denied opportunities, increasing the risk of hopelessness and social exclusion.
Accountability and compassion are not opposites. A society that believes in rehabilitation must also create pathways for people to rebuild their lives. I believe we need to urgently consider legislative reform that will:
- Automatically expunge certain minor offences committed by young people after a defined period of good behaviour;
- Create a faster, simpler and more accessible criminal record expungement process;
- Review the distinction between serious crimes and minor youthful mistakes; and
- Ensure that young people who have genuinely changed are not permanently defined by their worst decision.
This does not mean ignoring crime or weakening our justice system. Serious offences must always be treated with the seriousness they deserve. But we must also recognise that justice must include rehabilitation, restoration, and the opportunity to start again.
Many of our young people are not asking for their past to be erased because they want to avoid responsibility. They are asking for the opportunity to prove that they are more than the mistake they made years ago.
If we want to address unemployment, reduce crime and build stronger communities, we must remove unnecessary barriers that prevent people from participating in the economy. A criminal record should not become a permanent barrier for someone who has paid their debt and changed their life.
It is time for us to give young people a second chance, because a society that refuses to allow people to grow will continue to lose the potential of its own citizens.
Thulani Dasa
KwaMaqoma
Debundle Eskom and privatise the electricity industry
Supply should meet demand, not the other way around. Eskom should be shrinking, not searching for new customers to justify its continued existence. (“Eskom eyes Mozal, exports and new industry for its surplus power”, September 1).
Eskom’s great sin throughout its century of existence has been its inability to price electricity according to the market. When electricity was scarce politically imposed prices were kept artificially low. Now that supply exceeds demand, Eskom wants to stimulate consumption and seek new markets.
In both cases the problem is the same: a state monopoly trying to manufacture outcomes rather than allowing prices to reflect economic reality.
With private electricity generation rapidly expanding, Eskom should be pulling back. Its generation assets should be sold, its remaining monopoly privileges abolished, and the electricity sector opened fully to private competition.
Demand should not be conjured into existence merely to keep Eskom’s plants busy. It should arise naturally from economic growth. South Africa needs genuine institutional reforms that encourage investment, industrialisation and entrepreneurship: secure property rights, lower taxes, deregulation and reliable rule of law. Those are the incentives that will create factories, mines, data centres and businesses that actually need electricity.
Exporting power is not Eskom’s mandate. Eskom is not a private profit-making company seeking foreign customers. It is a perverse state monopoly meant to provide a public service, but which has used its monopoly position to loot the country while repeatedly failing to provide reliable electricity.
The monopoly must end. Eskom must be debundled, its assets sold, and the electricity industry fully privatised. Let supply, demand and competition determine South Africa’s energy future.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
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