RACIAL RECRUITMENT IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: DILEMMAS OF PRIVATE RECRUITMENT AGENCIES

Authors

  • Geraldine Martin
  • Kevin Durrheim University of KwaZulu-Natal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159//2309-8708/2006/n33a1

Keywords:

discourse, racism, rhetoric, recruitment, South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the rhetoric of racial exclusion used by South African private recruitment consultants to justify racist practice and criticise employment equity legislation. Transcribed face-to-face interviews with nine consultants in two urban centres serve as textual evidence. These consultants engaged in a number of rhetorical manoeuvres to justify privileging whites for employment, including blaming their clients and constructing whiteness as normative and blackness as deficient. They provided ostensibly non-racial reasons for privileging whites. The analysis offers insight into the conservation of racial advantage in the context of radical socio-political change.

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Author Biographies

Geraldine Martin

School of Psychology
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Pietermaritzburg Campus
Private Bag X01
Scottsville, 3209

Kevin Durrheim, University of KwaZulu-Natal

School of Psychology
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Pietermaritzburg Campus
Private Bag X01
Scottsville, 3209

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Published

2025-02-28

How to Cite

Martin, G., & Durrheim, K. (2025). RACIAL RECRUITMENT IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: DILEMMAS OF PRIVATE RECRUITMENT AGENCIES. PINS-Psychology in Society, 33(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.17159//2309-8708/2006/n33a1

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 1 (2006)

Section

Articles

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