The black people in the City of Johannesburg have been left angered by a job advert excluding them.
Several job adverts put up by the city had excluded black South Africans with a preference for Whites and Indians clearly stated.
Some of the positions included aides for council Speaker Vasco Da Gama. The roles included development and planning department of the city with blacks asked not to apply while able and disable whites and Indians were opened to the roles.
The city in a defense now criticised roundly, said it eliminated other races in the country in order to have applicants fit for the role.
“This is an employment equity targeted position and preference will be given to Indian/White males and Indian/White females including people with disabilities” the adverts read.
The council Speaker’s Spokesperson, Virgil James also defended the decision and said it was a means to fill vacancies in line with the City’s development structure. He said there was an imbalance and the decision to exclude blacks aimed to rectify this.
“The employment equity makes this determination of where the imbalance is and attempts to rectify this in this way,”
According to Sowetan Live, the Spokesperson said it was a decision determined by employment equity and was not in the hands of any official.
“Any advert has the preference of the required race group as determined by employment equity. This is not, I must emphasise, a personal preference of any official. This is the policy that is used and as much as it may be upsetting to job seekers, it also helps to avoid applicants wasting their time.
“In this instance, councillor Da Gama is not in any way involved in the selection or advertising except human resources whose function it is to attend to such matters coupled to employment equity determination,” James said.
The city later rephrased its requirements when the Mayor, Mpho Phalatse and Da Gama were made to respond to questions from journalists. It said the reason blacks were excluded was because of the need to have more underrepresented groups.
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“This is an employment equity targeted position and preference will be given to the EE underrepresented groups, ” the statement said.
While the wordings of the advert have since been changed, reactions have trailed the earlier post. The DA-coalition-led Joburg is being accused of intentionally purging young black professionals from the system with policies designed to frustrate them. The city’s council was also accused of retracting the permanent appointment of 130 employees, a move the Mayor said was because the appointments were irregular.
The ANC has also criticized the DA and described it as an anti-black party.
“The DA is anti-black as this has never happened in the city before. Under the ANC government, we never excluded anyone based on race,” ANC caucus leader, Mpho Moerane said.
