I studied HR to understand why my parents did not have time for me

I’m a young individual living in confined space, constructed with thin walls of a penny drop awaking, yet still underprivileged from the democratic change fought for.

Parents identified and defined by a 2 level tax bracket, eating dinner of just two items on a plate with occasional additives from Sunday's lunch. I seek to find greener grass and a modus operandi;

Mind of an opportunist, and soul of a hard-man-ship I push, and identify opportunities of living the pleasure of my daily neuron stimulation .

I studied human resources management understand why my parents came back home DAILY fatigued, and couldn’t be there for me in times of need.

My dad working on holidays and still getting normal rate for overtime and for those annual reading to my parents informing them about their income tax certificate (IRP5), and for the random shock inflicted by salary slips, and the ignorance towards deductions of employees, which earnestly are, my parents.

And with the protection fee which leaves you vulnerable - Unions. And the occasional conversations of my parents of employee disputes at work, and the unsatisfactory responses to their salaries.

SARS E-failing has put me, a 22year old male as a seasonally contributor to my parent’s budget, in accordance to tax season.

This has uneased the financial constringency of the household. I am Mashele Mpilonde Manyike. I help employees submit their IRP5 certificates, officed in my bedroom, with motives of contributing the little of self -time to employees for family spending, rather than waiting in long queues which generally results in acquiring and transmitting more stress to their families.

I include giving legal advice - from educational human resource hand books to income tax certificate statements.  I educate employees about their financial status.  I am an unlicensed tax practitioner filing for employees to pay my fees for school so I can study further.

In conclusion, I am confessing what I do in times of our economic crisis and presenting myself to the industry, with a lucid experience of a KPMG interview and panel said “pursue bigger and you shall achieve”.

Written by Mashele Mpilonde Manyike for the YouthTube, a SowetanLIVE initiative: for the youth, by the youth.

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