‘White candidates only’ job of

‘White candidates only’ job offer removed from Cape Town recruitment site

The job ad was allowed to stand for three weeks before it was removed

‘White candidates only’ job of

Job advertisement website People Solved have caused a huge storm, after an ad that specified it wanted “only white candidates” was allowed on the page.

The senior digital designer position was marketed to work for an unnamed company that had registered with the site. It offered an annual package of R420,000 a year – just under R35,000 a month.

The role required wire-frame design and site-map experience, as well as the ability to work in a team and with UX and UI systems. It also specified that you needed to be white:

The offending job description, which specifies ‘only white candidates’ in bold (News24)

How was this allowed to happen?

The ad had been running since Tuesday 5th September and was only removed yesterday. It’s not clear how many applicants applied for the job, but it didn’t seem too popular. The advert had remained there more than three weeks after being posted.

People Solved Director Simon Hill addressed News24 yesterday, after they had exposed the advert. He insisted this wasn’t accepted intentionally by his staff. Hill believes a junior employee had processed data onto the system without properly checking it.

He also maintains that this has jeopardised their relationship with the unnamed company:

“We are investigating the incident and as you’ve seen, immediately removed the advert when we noticed it. I can tell you this is the first of its kind that something like this happens.”

“I can assure you that we do not accept anything like this. We will be talking to the company and possibly reviewing if we still want to work with them.”

Opinion: This explanation of white privilege is going viral – you should read it

The incident has highlighted just how racism is still a glaring problem in South African business. Some will argue there’s context to the decision, but on the surface it seems utterly indefensible.