When police approached Esethu Mcinjana on the Sea Point promenade on May 19, she had no idea that she would end up spending the night in a cell at the Sea Point Police Station.

Why would she – all Esethu was doing was waiting for a job interview that she had arrived early for.

If you didn’t catch this story last week, you can find all of the details here, as well as the video that Esethu filmed of the arrest itself.

Thankfully, as the conduct of the police involved continues to be investigated by senior officials, there is a sliver of good news. Here’s GroundUp:

…because of the arrest Mcinjana missed her job interview.

After the GroundUp report she was called by the hotel and given a chance to attend an interview on Monday. Her application was successful and she has been accepted for a paid learnership.

“I was not comfortable going back to the same area for the interview because I didn’t know what would happen, especially since my face was all over the news. But I went because I wanted the job so badly,” Mcinjana said.

She has been looking for a job since January. She lives with her mother who works as a security guard at a university, and her three-year-old sister.

“I am more than happy that I got the job and thankful for the second opportunity that was granted to me,” Mcinjana said. “My mother is a single parent and looking after my sister and me with her salary. Now I can help her with this job and look after myself instead of always asking her for things.”

Mcinjana said that at the end of the learnership she will be given a certificate which she can use to apply for more jobs in the hospitality sector.

Yes please – we had a feeling the hotel involved would step up to the plate and offer Esethu a second interview, which she clearly nailed.

Quite staggeringly, at the time of the report above, the police station still had the house keys that they confiscated from Esethu on May 19, and had given no indication of when they may return them.

With the Human Rights Commission also following this one closely, they’d be well advised to get cracking on that sooner rather than later.

[source:groundup]