Amazon to hire 3,000 people in South Africa for customer service roles

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is hiring 3,000 people in South Africa this year to provide support to customers in North America and Europe, it said on Thursday.

The work from home roles will range from customer service associates to technical experts, providing 24 hour support to customers, the world’s largest online retailer said in a statement.

The new positions will bring the total permanent workforce in South Africa to 7,000, it added.

“This decision by Amazon to locate these jobs in South Africa shows our ability to offer a good value-proposition,” the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, said in the joint statement.

Amazon is building up its presence in Africa’s most developed economy. It’s cloud computing platform — Amazon Web Services (AWS) — announced the launch of its first data centre operations in April in Cape Town.

Amazon’s history in South Africa dates back to 2004, with the customer service unit operating since 2010. It, however, doesn’t offer its e-commerce service in the country.

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)