Call for ‘defiance campaign’ over Employment Equity Act
DA LEADER John Steenhuisen and civil society organisations have called for a “defiance campaign” regarding mooted amendments to the Employment Equity Act (EEA) which they say will sideline Indian, coloured and white workers.
But the ANC and Cosatu have dismissed the claims, insisting the DA was misrepresenting the proposals.
Steenhuisen, while speaking to residents in Chatsworth before by-elections, called for a defiance campaign that would mean communities would reject the amendment to the act while the party prepared to escalate the issue to the Constitutional Court.
President Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the amendment bill in April after Parliament approved it last year.
On May 12, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi published a gazette calling for comments on the EEA. Companies have been given 30 days to offer their input and comment in terms of the act, and the Department of Labour must prescribe sectoral employment demographic targets in each province for companies that have more than 50 employees.
Steenhuisen said the amendments set quotas for every workplace and every economic sector. He described the amendment as forced quotas, saying if companies didn’t comply they would be severely punished, and businesses could be fined up to 10% of their annual turnover. He said should the act be promulgated into law, the number of Indians working in skilled positions would be reduced.
Steenhuisen said businesses would be driven into bankruptcy through fines and punishment from the government, young people would emigrate, and skills would leave the country.
“Just think about this. The ANC is introducing a law that will ban entire groups of South Africans from working in specific areas or sectors. This race law, in the year 2023, is effectively saying that people with certain skin colours do not belong in certain areas. Does this not remind us of the Group Areas Act?” he asked.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said: “Such a policy would be inconsistent with the entire ethos of the ANC, particularly the pursuit of the National Democratic Revolution, which seeks to democratise our society and all spheres of the economy, including the labour market. The ANC-led liberation movement has always been consistent in its pursuit of a non-racial and just society. Building a non-racial labour market is a fundamental aspect of the NDR.”
Cosatu’s Sizwe Pamla said it supported the amendment as there had been a lack of appetite to comply with it, and many employers had discussed whether it was still necessary to have discussions on employment equity.