When Zhaida Juries shared her story of how a scam left her unemployed at News24’s On the Record jobs summit, she never expected it to lead to an opportunity on the same day.

• When News24’s On the Record summit began, the aim was to ask how we could create five million jobs over the next 10 years for fellow South Africans.
• There are now two fewer jobs to create after Zhaida and Keagan Juries shared their unemployment journey in the two-day conference’s opening video.
• Their story was so powerful that it moved businessman Cole Davids to look for them and offer to train them to join his consultancy business.

Zhaida Juries was the first person in her family to pursue post-matric qualifications. After matriculating in 2015, she went on to study public management and landed her first job in 2019.

But for the past year, she and her husband Keagan have both been struggling to find work.

Zhaida was the victim of a scam, and in the most difficult of months, their family of five have struggled to pay the electricity bill in their Lavender Hill home.

“In March last year, I had an interview with another workplace in line with what I studied,” the audience at News24 On the Record heard in a video prepared for the summit.

“I left my job and it turned out it was a scam. But it wasn’t just me, there were 50 of us. Some of us were able to jump back to where we left off, but some of us weren’t so lucky.”

In the audience was Cole Davids, a businessman and founder of The Pillar 5 Group, which trains people to become consultants for small businesses in the informal sector.

He saw Zhaida’s video and immediately knew what he had to do.

“When the conference started, that video was the highlight, when we saw her face come on. It was a wow moment. It really inspired us. You could hear in her voice that ‘I really want to work, and I’ve had a lot of disappointments’,” he told Graeme Raubenheimer on his show, The Lead.

“That touched me immediately. I didn’t know that she was here though and I went to ask, ‘where is the lady on the screen?’ I walk into her on the floor... and I called my office and said we must find a way to help her.”

Paying the electricity bill and a dream inspired

Zhaida and Keagan’s struggles with electricity inspired them to start their own startup: a dream to build an app that lets consumers purchase electricity and earn rewards, called WattWallet.

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It was while developing this idea that a foundation called Life Matters, in partnership with Ava, assisted Zhaida with an internship in August. As a result, they were invited to tell their story at the News24 summit.

But she never thought that sharing their story would lead to something – especially so soon.

She said:

“They believed in us, and I don’t know why we are so skaam (shy). Why are we doubting ourselves so much? Other people are having the same struggles.”

‘I prayed to God, if we can’t find the words, let somebody come to us’

It’s been a whirlwind two days for the couple from the Cape Flats, but the weather has broken after a year-long search to find permanent employment.

Davids has offered Zhaida and Keagan the opportunity to work at the incubation hub based at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, where they will not only learn how to be consultants to small business owners, but will also learn how to train others in their position.

“I just said to my husband, ‘Look at God’,” said Zhaida.

She added:

“And I prayed to God, if we can’t find the words to say, let somebody come to us. So, thank you, Cole.”

Zhaida will also have the opportunity to complete her internship, and while working there, they will receive support for their personal business idea around the electricity app.

The final words were left to Davids, and he said:

“I was walking behind them yesterday and said, ‘send your documents!’ It’s now done and dusted, and they are going to come for orientation and induction.

“We are no longer at five million, we’ve got two down.”

If you have an inspiring jobs story to tell, email [email protected].