Ex-convict warns youth on crime

Martin Masale receives a Vuk´uzenzele booklet from a receptionist Euphodia Letsiya at Mokwakwaila Thusong Centre so he could look up for viable opportunities that could help him make a living.

Life is never easy with a criminal record tagged on your face, according to an ex-convict who has done his time in jail and is now back home to start a new life from scratch.

“There’s always this stigma that “he’s an ex-convict” every time you come across certain groups of people or just walking around looking for job,” explained a 20-year-old Martin Masale of Mokwakwaila village near Modjadjiskloof.

Martin is currently out on parole for his ten months sentence that he served for house breaking case at his village. Speaking from Mokwakwaila Thusong centre where he had come to sign up at the parole board as part of conditions entrenched in his parole, Martin warned other youth on how crime could destroy their future.

“it’s never easy to be accepted back by the society, not to mention the challenges that one encounters when looking for job once you have criminal record hanging about your head,” he said, urging other youth not to follow on his footsteps.

“People would treat you like you have killed somebody,” he went on saying that, “youth should make sure that whatever they do they stay clean from criminal records which could eventually dent their future.”

Martin was doing grade 11 when he was arrested and he is now struggling to secure a job that would help him stay clear from troubles. Asked about going back to school, he said he has no plans to do that at the moment. “My priority now is to find a job…any job as long as I get something at the end of the months,” he said.

Martin is one of many ex-convicts who make use of Mokwakwaila Thusong centre to report back to the parole board as required by their parole conditions. Coming from the neighbouring village called Matipane, which is plus or minus 10km away from the Thusong centre, he and other ex-convicts could not have survived without the centre.

“The nearest magistrate court is in Tzaneen, about 50km away from here – so that would be very difficult for us travel back and forth because we’re unemployed and many of us come from poor families who hardly afford a meal a day,” explained Martin.