[imagesource:here]

The smoke had barely cleared on EFF protests outside of Clicks stores nationwide when another allegation of racism arose.

This time, the party gathered outside a BMW dealership in Century City in Cape Town on Friday, calling for an end to “SMG racism”.

To backtrack, the story begins with an article in the Mail & Guardian, which uncovered an email sent by Julian Schlemmer, the founder of Schlemmer & Associates – a recruitment agency based in Durban.

The email sent to three of Schlemmer’s associates outlined a set of criteria for an alleged new job opening at Sean McCarthy Group (SMG), the company that sells Land Rover, BMW, Mini, Toyota, and Lexus vehicles, which went a little something like this:

In the email, with the subject line “SMG — Marketing Manager”, was the “[n]ew spec from SMG for a Marketing Manager. Ideal candidate youngish white Male or Female (slightly prefer male). Wants a nice calibre candidate, good school, good qualifications,” Schlemmer wrote.

He goes on to describe the position in the company, the salary, and the need for an “experienced Marketing Manager to join their team”. The advert was also posted by Schlemmer’s recruitment agency on jobs portal Pnet.co.za.

One candidate interested in applying alleges that she was told by an employee of the agency that “they were specifically looking for a white male, but that the employer would be open to a white female”.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s head on back to the EFF protests with News24.

“We have come here to BMW SMG about a racist advert that was placed by the branch in Cape Town and we are pushing the agenda of transforming our society in addressing issues,” said EFF member Yusuf Joseph, as police monitored the protest.

The EFF has demanded an investigation by BMW South Africa and the Department of Trade and Industry, and is scheduled to meet with SMG soon to discuss the issue, which SMG claims have nothing to do with the company.

Dealer principal Ryan Rheeder told News24, “we are an innocent party here. We are not racist”.

Rheeder says that not only was there no job position to fill, but that the advert was created without their consent.

When SMG’s marketing manager resigned and emigrated, an external recruitment agency, Schlemmer & Associates, saw an opportunity to do business by filling his post without asking permission or checking in with the company.

According to Rheeder, if protests were going to happen, they should be taking place outside Schlemmer’s offices.

SMG has handed over the initial media report to the Press Ombud, and intends on taking legal action against the recruitment agency.

[sources:mailguardian&news24]