OVER 1000 APPLICATIONS FOR "PROUDLY SA" JOBS

19 April 2001

Just over 1000 people have applied to work on "Proudly South African", a campaign initiated by Nedlac to increase demand for South African goods and services, thereby stimulating growth and helping to create jobs.

"The response has been phenomenal", said Michelle de Bruyn, of the Nedlac secretariat. "People seem to be very excited by the chance to work on such a campaign. Our fax machine did not stop ringing for a week, let alone the number of applications received by email."

Several callers to Nedlac had not even seen the advertisement, but on hearing of the campaign, called to find out how they could be involved.

Eight positions were advertised, including Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Manager, Compliance Manager and Membership Co-ordinator, with support staff. The staff will set up a new organisation which will run the campaign on an ongoing basis.

The amount of interest shown in the campaign bears out consumer and industry research carried out in the planning phase. 92% of those sampled believed that South Africa needed a campaign to promote consumers and companies' sourcing their goods and services locally.

As could be expected, the number of applications for the less-skilled positions far exceeded those for the top three, but interest has been high across the board.

A shortlist for the CEO has been drawn up, and an announcement is expected soon. Nedlac wants to have the CEO in place before the selection of the rest of the staff is made.

"People were willing to relocate from all over the country to work for "Proudly South African", said Ms de Bruyn. "I think it really augurs well for the success of the campaign itself."

The marketing launch of the campaign, including the logo, is expected to take place in June.

Jennifer Wilson
Communications Coordinator
Nedlac
(011) 482-2511
fax: 482 4650