A young South African applied for a cleaning position but got way more than she expected when the prospective employer saw she had passed a Law Degree Cum Laude.
Cape Town, South Africa (30 April 2017) – Jeanne Pienaar, a Capetonian business owner advertised a half-day cleaning position online. She was inundated with applications, but one CV stood out from the rest.
“The applicant said she had studied Law at Wits, so I couldn’t understand why she would apply for a humble cleaning position, when she should be lawyering it up.”
Jeanne phoned WITS to follow up and make sure her CV was real. Their accounts department released her marks, and not only did she indeed study Law, but she also completed her studies Cum Laude and was awarded the Dean’s Merit prize for one of her subjects.
“I couldn’t allow this girl to give up on her dreams, so I came up with a plan to hopefully change her life.”
Jeanne phoned Nesia Chido (the applicant) and asked her to come in for an “interview” for the position as a cleaner at her beauty salon – ‘ClipinHair’.
During the “interview”, Nesia was incredibly proud when they spoke of her excellent marks. It was evident that her hard work, perseverance and dedication shone through in everything she put her mind too.
She said that her degree was being withheld as she owed R53 000 in outstanding student fees, so her plan was to work wherever possible to pay off her debt so that she could eventually become a lawyer.
Nesia went on to explain how hard it was for her to have obtained the degree and how hard she had worked to achieve the brilliant marks she did.
She opened up and spoke about how she was forced to sleep in the university library as she couldn’t afford accommodation. She also spoke about having to use wet wipes to make herself presentable for class. She didn’t have any money at all so she spent all her time studying.
During the interview, Jeanne advised her that they were unfortunately not going to offer her the position.
“We can’t offer you this position.”
“We are however going to help you pay off your loan. We will put the word out to all our clients and followers on social media and we will match whatever donations South Africans make, to pay off your outstanding student fees.”
Nesia became extremely emotional and was visibly in shock, battling to get her words out. All she kept saying was thank you, thank you, thank you.
The company put the word out on social media with a video they captured secretly during the interview and have already raised over R15 750 in just a few days meaning that they should reach their goal before the long weekend is over.
“Nesia is the perfect example of how hard work, a positive attitude, and humility, can result in South Africa doing great things to help someone.”
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Just out of interest, imagine how many others just like her there are out there. There are clearly issues with this, there needs to be legislation that protects candidates from this, that is universities should not be allowed to withold degrees on account of unpaid fees. The degree should be issued and the candidate should be supported to find employment so that they can repay their debt. Such an unnecessary stumbling block, and it has reputational repercussions in that candidates are judged as not being creditworthy. I would say that these law firms in the name of social responsibility should tackle the bigger issue by upskilling the university financial departments to find creative solutions to recover unpaid fees without compromising issuing degrees and supporting candidates to empower themselves by actively seeking employment.
All I desire is to meet the girl for a talk she is one one of the angels our country need for an inspirational motivesl….yo
u are are Supergirl my sister may GOd bless you every second of a day….