ANC protests against ‘racism’

ABOUT 100 people marched to the Western Cape legislature yesterday as part of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) new campaign to highlight “racism” and the “socioeconomic exclusion of the majority in the province”.

ANC provincial leaders chairman Marius Fransman and secretary Songezo Mjongile led the march, just a day before Democratic Alliance leader and Premier Helen Zille delivers her state of the province address today. It came amid fears that the ANC was planning to disrupt Ms Zille’s speech in the same way that Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters disrupted President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address last week.

But the ANC dismissed the speculation, saying it would raise its issues without disrupting the speech.

In its memorandum delivered yesterday the ANC said transformation in the province had failed and that had resulted in “the exodus of black professionals” from the Western Cape.

Ms Zille has previously said the Western Cape has a small pool of qualified professionals to consider for senior management posts, regardless of race. Only 10% of the province’s economically active population had a three-year degree, one of the requirements of a senior management position.

The 14th report of the Commission for Employment Equity released last year showed that the Western Cape continued to perform poorly in terms of making its workplaces reflect its demographics. But it also pointed out that the slow pace of transformation was a national problem.

Ms Zille this week said racism was the “only card the ANC has left to play”.