Imagine applying for a job, only to discover that more than 30 other people are competing for the exact same position. Now multiply that across an entire country.
South Africa's police service is recruiting 5,500 new trainees, and more than 300,000 people have already registered their interest. That&'s not a recruitment drive. That's a national stampede for a payslip.
And the most revealing part of this story isn't necessarily how many people want to become police officers. It's what these numbers tell us about how desperately South Africans need jobs.