{"id":11484,"date":"2013-11-04T13:09:50","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T13:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11484"},"modified":"2013-11-04T13:09:50","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T13:09:50","slug":"wanted-white-male-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11484","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: White male only"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"whitemen\"<\/a>
Taking down the sign…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wanted: White male only.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the job advert, placed on Gumtree by Quest Recruitment Agency on behalf of a cellphone business, which has kicked up a storm of protest, with the agency finding itself fielding accusations of racism.<\/p>\n

Quest, denies the advert is either racist or sexist, but pulled it off the website this week after Weekend Argus made inquiries about the requirements for the job.<\/p>\n

The SA Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, says it is investigating a similar job advertisement seeking \u201cwhites only\u201d in Cape Town, which was posted last month.<\/p>\n

A screengrab of Quest\u2019s Gumtree advert for its Tyger Valley-based client \u2013 dated October 22 \u2013 declares that \u201cthis job is for you if you meet the following requirements\u201d. Among these, it lists \u201cwhite male\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mymoena Karriem, the agent who oversaw the advert, said nothing was untoward about the job\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the agency that specifies the requirements, it\u2019s the client,\u201d she said, arguing that the agency wasn\u2019t being racist. She declined to name the cellphone outlet which advertised the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been calling in and telling us we\u2019re racist. It\u2019s what the client wants, and what the client wants, the client gets,\u201d Karriem said.<\/p>\n

When pushed for her client\u2019s identity, she said: \u201cI\u2019m not at liberty to tell you the client\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said the company had placed adverts for other jobs specifying other races, but refused to elaborate. When pressed further, she referred the Weekend Argus to a senior colleague.<\/p>\n

Karriem\u2019s colleague, who refused to give her name, said: \u201cI can\u2019t tell you my client\u2019s (name). The clients ask us what they want for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a client needs a person with a certain skill-set, we\u2019ll help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Customer service agent Thembinkosi Mdemka, who wanted to apply for the job, said he was discouraged because of the race requirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t apply. They wouldn\u2019t reply to my mail anyway (because) I\u2019m an African,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt they were selfish and limiting opportunities for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SAHRC said the other complaint it was dealing with was an advert titled \u201cAlgemene Werker: slegs blankes\u201d (general worker: whites only), posted in Cape Town last month.While it had not received complaints in respect of the white-men-only advert, the SAHRC condemned such advertising. – Weekend Argus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wanted: White male only. That\u2019s the job advert, placed on Gumtree by Quest Recruitment Agency on behalf of a cellphone business, which has kicked up a storm of protest, with the agency finding itself fielding accusations of racism. Quest, denies the advert is either racist or sexist, but pulled it off the website this week … Continue reading “Wanted: White male only”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[7259,7260,2888,7258],"class_list":["post-11484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-gumtree","tag-quest-recruitment-agency","tag-sahrc","tag-white-male-only"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/whitemen.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11487,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11484\/revisions\/11487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}