Cape Town – A coloured driver who claimed he was discriminated against when a company told him an advertised job was for “blacks only” was given an interview after the Daily Voice published his story.
But he changed his mind about the job when he heard the salary was R3 000.
Raymond Jacobs, 51, from Manenberg responded to a job ad in the Cape Times Classifieds section on Monday, 8 May.
Raymond says he called and spoke to a “coloured woman” who told him he was wasting his time.
“She instantly told me: ‘Look, the job is for black people only. I’m just giving you a heads up because you’re going to waste your time if you send your CV’,” Raymond says.
The owner of Silver Springs, a bottled water supplier, Artur Marcal, told the Daily Voice it was not a race issue, rather a language preference and also invited Raymond for an interview.
“This is not about him being a certain race. We wanted the person applying to be Xhosa-speaking as per the clients they will be dealing with."
Picture: Supplied
“I will give him [Raymond] a fair chance and we are inviting him to come for an interview on Wednesday [10 May] and the decision can be made then,” Artur said.
Raymond says he went for the interview.
“I went to their offices in Blackheath and was told employees use public transport like the train,” he says.
“I asked the woman where the ‘blacks only’ fit in, and she said as a driver, I would have an assistant and needed to communicate with him in Xhosa."
“I didn’t understand because he must be able to speak English. The travelling, however, would hurt my pocket.”
Raymond said the salary offered was “pathetic”.
“They are offering R3 000 a month. I think that is disgusting for a code 10 driver and still to do heavy labour. You cannot offer such money to people. I therefore declined the job as I have a family."
“This is about cheap labour, and the labour department needs to investigate this.”
The new national minimum wage agreement, which employers must implement by 1 March 2018, has been set at R3 500 a month for a 40-hour week.