No scrapping of equity policies, Labour Minister says

THERE would be no scrapping of Affirmative Action or Employment Equity policies, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said, following the release of the latest employment equity report which showed whites dominated almost twothirds of top management positions.

Senior management levels in the workplace were also mostly in the hands of white people.

While the ANC proposed “radical economic transformation” in tackling the contentious issue, Oliphant implored government to “strengthen the existing laws”.

White males commanded 68.5% of top management positions nationally, followed by black males who claimed 14.4%, while 4.9% of top management jobs were occupied by coloureds. Nationally 78% of top management positions were held by men and 22% were in the hands of women.

A provincial breakdown indicated the Western Cape had the most white males in top management, followed by the Free State and the Eastern Cape, respectively.

The least amount of black people in top management were employed in the Western Cape.

Oliphant denounced “those who continue to be critical of the continued existence of Employment Equity policies”, saying it had been labelled as ‘apartheid’ and ‘racism in reverse’. She said scrapping it was “absurd”. “Let us remind everybody that introducing employment equity was for all intents and purposes, a recognition that South Africa comes from an ugly past, where discrimination was the cornerstone of social and economic engineering. The trouble seems to lie with low levels of compliance and absolutely nothing to do with its construct and design,” Oliphant said.

Independent labour analyst Tony Healy agreed it was “not appropriate” to label the policy as racist.

“Increased government pressure, via the Department of Labour, will speed up employer compliance with affirmative action obligations, especially if the imposition of fines is increased. It is anticipated that employer compliance with the EEA will increase with regular auditing of compliance by labour inspectors,” Healy said.

ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the party “can’t accept that 23 years into democracy, our economy is still not transformed”. “The ANC must be unapologetic about radical economic transformation; it’s a system that only favours a certain group of people,” he said.

DA economic opportunities spokesperson, Beverley Schafer, said the party was disappointed with the figures.

“The numbers show how we have failed nationwide to address obstacles for black people to reach management level in the workplace.It shows the ANC’s failure to provide transformation through education and the ability to capacitate black South Africans through a targeted intervention of skill development etc.,” Schafer said.