Qualified, trained, abandoned: How unemployment is destroying a young educator's hope
From graduation gown to ground zero: An educator’s life in limbo.
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Once brimming with dreams and determination, Nomzamo Khuzwayo, a qualified Mathematics and Science teacher now faces the crushing weight of despair, depression, and relentless uncertainty after nearly four years of unemployment.
Her story exposes the emotional toll of broken promises, the weight of family expectations, and the quiet suffering of graduates who were told education would secure their future, only to be left feeling invisible and betrayed.
Nomzamo's journey was meant to be a story of promise and progress.
Originally from KwaZulu-Natal and now based in Johannesburg, she graduated from the University of Zululand with Mathematics and Science, subjects long described as scarce skills in South Africa.
She studied under the Funza Lushaka Bursary, believing it would open doors to a classroom and a stable future.
Instead, nearly four years after graduating in 2021, she remains unemployed, carrying a deep sense of betrayal and loss.
"I had high hopes of getting a job immediately after graduating because I majored in subjects that are in demand," she said.
Since then, her life has been shaped by rejection, silence and relentless uncertainty.
Nomzamo has applied continuously for teaching posts, clinging to the belief that perseverance would eventually pay off.
As the years passed without success, that belief began to fracture.
"Four years later of being an unemployed teacher, I have lost hopes of getting a job and changing my life. I even regret wasting so many years at university."
Unemployment has exacted a heavy toll on her mental health. She speaks openly about depression, anxiety and the exhaustion of constantly having to justify herself to others.
In desperation, she left home to search for opportunities elsewhere, first Mpumalanga, then Limpopo, hand-delivering CVs and sleeping on fragile hope.
That search ended traumatically when she was almost kidnapped while returning from a school where she had delivered her CV.
"I had to return back home as I was not mentally stable and stayed for a month to regain myself," she said. "I permanently relocated to Johannesburg as I have no mental capacity to cope staying at home as an unemployed, still applying with no luck."
Today, Nomzamo lives with fear and a profound sense of disappointment.
As the first-born child, the weight of expectation presses heavily on her shoulders.
She had dreamed of changing her family's circumstances, but instead feels she is watching time slip away. "I feel like my future is no longer bright, I had hopes of changing my life after graduating."
To survive, she has tried to learn new skills, including revamping CVs, though even that work is sporadic.
At times, she relies on her grandmother, who earns a modest and unstable income sewing clothes. The reversal of roles is painful and humiliating for her.
"I feel worthless as I am the one who is supposed to help her to bring bread at the table, now I became the burden."
Nomzamo's story is not just about one unemployed graduate, but about a generation of trained educators left stranded by broken promises, systemic failure and perceived nepotism within the education system.
She questions a reality where qualifications appear to matter less than connections, and where young graduates are told education is the key to success, only to find the door firmly closed.
Her voice carries anger, grief and fatigue, but also a plea to be seen and understood.
For Nomzamo, and many like her, unemployment is not just the absence of work; it is the slow erosion of dignity, hope and belief in a future that once seemed guaranteed.
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