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As I moved around Bulawayo’s streets recently, I noticed an increased volume of youths who are school-leavers in town, mostly at leisure centres like Centenary Park and video shops.

I thought about their future, juxtaposed with the current economic situation and that of our time even though it was not many years ago.

Something just told me some might be on the streets for the rest of their lives maybe because come results time, they would have failed while some are dramatically crossing a bridge in the sense that they are waiting for the results to progress to tertiary education.

Once results are out in February or in March, depending on the efficiency of the authorities, candidates start running around securing places to advance their education.

Those in Form Four would progress to Lower Sixth while others would go straight to tertiary education to train as teachers, nurses and other professions like police, soldiers etc while those in Upper Sixth will go to university or other institutions of higher learning like teachers’ colleges or polytechnics.

However, it is during this period, which ranges between three to four months that the youths make strong decisions in their lives because they have got all the time.

Spending the day without doing anything at home, that is when most of them roam the streets with friends, frequent the city centre and leisure areas with colleagues or end up engaging in sexual activity. After spending three to four months in the wilderness of boarding school, some youths get wild when they meet friends during holidays. Some even end up getting married this time, some fall pregnant and sadly some contract diseases and all these features lead to a drastic turn in their future lives.

In previous years when industry was still viable, youths would get part-time jobs during the time when the conventional workers were on annual Christmas Holiday shut down.

This is the time when thousands of our youths join the great trek down south to join friends and relatives who are doing menial jobs outside the country.

The situation of industries has deteriorated to the extent that no one firm can afford to contract anyone during the holiday for part-time jobs and we run a risk that many might think of going Egoli.

Because industry can no longer employ, school-leavers would now be the dominant feature in the streets.

I think the situation at hand should be a lesson to our young brothers and sisters that they should not at all think about going outside the country to look for the so-called greener pastures because they have their lives to build which cannot be built outside the country.

Their future lies in furthering their studies and thousands who left the country soon after completing their Ordinary Level or Advanced Level or even before finishing the courses, have regretted as their counterparts have progressed in life.

Instead, there are many other half career paths school-leavers can embark on in the meantime as they wait for their results to be out.

This is the time to look for employment in places like supermarkets, stationery shops, or do short courses that would enable them get employment prior to joining tertiary institutions.

This is the little money that can keep them going as pocket money for airtime, internet and self- sufficiency and prevent especially girls from soliciting material things from men.

It will also help when they go to college because they would have extra money to supplement what their parents would have given them as pocket money or buy clothes for themselves thereby reducing the burden on parents. School-leavers should deeply think about this because any decision they make at this stage determines their future. It is not surprising that some are yet to know what they want to do in life and would be guided by the results or would be forced into some profession by parents and colleagues.

I remember when I finished high school back then, I was staying in Nkulumane 12 and started going places to look for a job.

I remember going to company after company and at some point I went to the place where people queue for jobs popularly known as koVundu because I wanted a job and that is what mattered to me. I had a brother who was working at a local wholesale and on month ends he would invite me to the shop to help with stocktaking and I would get some pocket money.

However, through time “nature called” and I found myself joining the “great trek” down south. First, I went to Botswana where I spent half a year in Molepolole and then to Johannesburg where I spent 18 months doing menial jobs.

There was nothing rosy about being there but only the spirit of following the footsteps of brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts who had made South Africa their second home.

That is the danger of going to neighbouring countries, Egoli.

Many a times I have heard elders in church or in communities saying, “abantwabethu sebephelele Egoli. Bahamba ngedabulaphu babuye sebephethe amaluba ngezifuba bebheke phezulu. (Our children have perished in South Africa, they go there illegally and come back in coffins)”.

This is true. Each day omalayitsha pull trailers of corpses from that country to Bulawayo and very few families would say they have not lost a relative down there.

With that in mind, school-leavers should see it as a threat going outside the country to seek employment.

This is so because firstly there is no more employment for untrained people there and secondly that is like putting one’s life on the line.

In recent years, what pushed us going to South Africa was the fact that our brothers and sisters would come back wearing All Star shoes, driving GPs, playing the latest kwaito or house music songs and splashing cash.

For us in Bulawayo that would set the tone for Christmas but there was more to that than would meet the eye. Most of those who came back with GPs are no longer with us, most of the cars had been stolen and some of them have been shot dead or killed for armed robbery. Yes, some of them were genuine as they would have been hired or borrowed for the Christmas Holidays.

A 20-year-old young woman who just finished Upper Six at a local school, Praise Ndlovu said she would want to start focusing on her future.

“As I am waiting for my results, I hope to get a place for temporary teaching to keep myself busy up to the time when results are out and when I get a place to university. I want to study law. I have already started approaching schools for this.

“Going to South Africa is the last thing I would do. That place is for visiting and relaxing or for someone who has finished education and going there professionally. What I hear is that most of youths get carried away because of ubunandi and end up cutting their lives short,” said Praise.

“I am planning to proceed to Form Five if I pass my Form Four and as for now I would be looking for any kind of a job that could take me through,” said another pupil Constantine Ncube.

To all school-leavers, I say going to South Africa is no longer worth it, stay in the country and build your career paths and shape your future here.