An “Honest South African” Job Seeker Stirs a Healthy Debate

A photo uploaded to Facebook on Tuesday has got thousands of South Africans talking, and has already had over 16,000 shares in less than 24 hours. The photo depicts a white man called ‘Wayne’ allegedly looking for a job. Above the photo is a caption saying: “Let’s put social media to the test. An honest South African needs a job!”

The man is holding a board, in the RealLiveSA post, saying he is a qualified electrician whose vehicle was recently stolen, and that he’s looking for any job.

Similar photos of job seekers have been shared on social media over the last few years, often resulting in the man holding the board receiving an avalanche of job opportunities and a spreading a lot of feel good vibes throughout the country.

However the men holding the boards are usually black. This time the response has been different… whether because the man is white, or because he says on the board that he’s “sick and tired of EE/AA”, or because the caption is subtly challenging.

It has instead triggered a debate amongst South African users of Facebook that reflect a wide range of opinions. Here are some of them:

Fezile M: “Where are the relatives, what did the forefathers do to your inheritance? I don’t understand a poor white person… it doesn’t make sense. Maybe he was on drugs or something. The board is nicely typed and the A1 paper is laminated. I am convinced he is a druggie wanting a quickie.”

Ilse KQ: “Are you on drugs? Not everyone born into an inheritance. That is such an awful thing to say…”

Martin S: “You are a qualified sparky. Don’t ask for work. Work for yourself. There is a lot of work out there and if you are decent. You will be fine… with the qualifications you have.”

Mcebisi LN: “Lol he’s sick of EE (Employment Equity ensures that women and men are on equal ground for job opportunities and salary pay) and AA (Affirmative Action basically is anti racism during the hiring, and job promotion processes)? So he doesn’t want women to have jobs? Get paid what is fair? He doesn’t want Coloured people to get the same kind of jobs he’s also applying for? Lol He must find the nearest trash bag to feed himself ke.”

Leslie D: “Someone out there has to help this guy find work, and don’t be taking advantage of his desperation, good luck to you buddy, stay safe.”

Albert L: Pack your bags and emigrate to New Zealand! They appreciate honest hardworking decent qualified people!”

The most popular comments however were these two:

Zubair A (who uploaded the photo below): “You see this picture is from the museum of Mandela. It shows the different races contributing to demolish apartheid. Stop the hate people. We going nowhere with this kak. It’s better if we used this hate against crime.”

Tebogo M: “Solution for when offended by a racist comment? Don’t respond to it. Pay it no attention. Embrace Love. Embrace Compassion. PS: a racist comment can come from a person of any race. No racial group has a monopoly over racist statements.”

When contacted by SAPeople, Wayne said he has received “7 offers so far, but not to my satisfaction”.