Global retail giant Walmart’s proposed acquisition of Massmart could create thousands of food retail jobs, according to a spokesperson for the South African retailer.

Walmart announced yesterday that the acquisition would create roughly 15,000 retail jobs over the next five years.

A Massmart spokesperson told Recruiter: “Walmart has taken a 51% stake in Massmart’s South African business. They are also spending 60bn rand (£5.47bn) in the development of their food business. I imagine a good number of jobs would be in the food area.

“If you look at the Walmart model and the Massmart model, the one difference has been that Massmart has had less presence in fresh food. About 18 months ago Massmart bought a chain called Cambridge, which is a mass market food retailer in South Africa. They are now rolling that out across the country and also into their existing stores, so a lot of that job creation will be in the area of food.”