Job-seekers swamp recruitment centre

Agency on BCM jobs drive forced to shut their doors

DESPERATION among jobseekers was made evident this week when a recruitment agency on a jobs drive in the Buffalo City Metro was swamped with applications.

Port Elizabeth recruitment agency, Zwanda Solutions, which has offices inside a plant in the EL IDZ, had to shut their doors and application boxes, only hours before a deadline for a call to job-seekers’ CVs on Tuesday.

The aim of the advertisement was to build up a database of unskilled and semi-skilled labourers and was circulated on social media by the agency last week. It gave June 12 – (Tuesday at 5pm) – as the deadline for applications. Thabo Ngudle from Dawn was one of the people at the plant on Tuesday to submit his son’s CV before the deadline. At the plant he found scores of other people trying to submit their CVs.

However, Ngudle said when they arrived, there was a notice at the gate informing them that no more CVs would be accepted, as the required target had been reached.

Zwanda solutions manager Jason Aiken, said: “We did indeed request applications for unskilled and semiskilled labourers like artisans, but once we received too much, we couldn’t take it anymore.

“The advert was sent out last week and we received about 400 CVs daily since then. By the time people arrived on Tuesday, it was already too much. We only recruit when there is a need.”

IDZ marketing and public relations officer Yandisa Msileni said Zwanda was, however, not mandated by the investor to undertake the recruitment drive.

Msileni said: “The EL IDZ has recently set up its own recruitment office to help new investors recruit suitable candidates for identified employment opportunities.

“Any person who wants to register their CV onto the EL IDZ’s employment database can e-mail their CV to