Gijima Reviews

Low salary, no 13th cheque and medical aid benefit

I joined Gijima genuinely hopeful that I’d get the chance to contribute to meaningful national projects. But what I found instead were deep systemic issues, poor leadership (you’ll hear this a lot), and a serious lack of support for the very people doing the work. What went wrong: Broken Promises: We worked crazy hours , sometimes until the early morning , under the promise of overtime pay or extra leave. Neither happened. People were left burnt out, drained, and completely demotivated. Toxic Leadership: Many of the senior managers come across as completely out of their depth. They don’t seem to understand the industries they're working in and honestly just look like they’re trying to make it to the next payday. Inconsistent Policies: The work-from-home policy was all over the place. Even when someone could be productive remotely, they were forced to take leave , while others were allowed to stay home with no issue. It felt like whether you got flexibility depended entirely on whether management liked you. Hostile Culture: There’s a very territorial management style here. Offering feedback or suggesting improvements gets seen as a threat , especially if it exposes leadership flaws. If you’re vocal or proactive, you’ll quickly find yourself on the outside. Unrealistic Client Commitments: This one’s a killer. Leadership often promises clients full delivery of massive backlogs , we’re talking years of work , without even checking in with the dev team. They don’t understand the software lifecycle, yet they commit on our behalf. Then when things go sideways, it’s the team that ends up working nights, unpaid, to try and clean it up. Lack of Recognition: You can step up, take the lead on failing projects, go the extra mile , it won’t matter. There’s little to no recognition. Morale across teams is at an all-time low. Legacy Systems, No Support: The tech stack is a mess , outdated, undocumented, and full of technical debt. If tech systems were a government, Gijima’s would be the ANC. New teams are just thrown into the deep end with zero onboarding and expected to figure it all out themselves. Final Thoughts: Honestly, I should’ve done more research before joining. If you’re a seasoned professional who values structure, strong leadership, or even just a working environment that respects your time , run the other way. And that’s the real shame. Gijima could be great. The potential is there. But unless something changes at the top , unless leadership, planning, and accountability are taken seriously , it’ll just keep going in circles. So disappointing.