State workforce in line with act’s aim

Racial mix of staff reflects country’s demographics with blacks filling nearly 75% of government posts

AGAINST the background of a national debate on employment equity, a Sunday Times survey of the 33 national government departments reveals that South Africa’s national administration is generally demographically representative.

Of the 397 340 positions across all departments, blacks occupy 296 926 posts (or 74.7%), coloureds 42 916 (10.8%), Indians-Asians 8 842 (2.2%) and whites 48 615 (12.2%).

According to the 2011 census figures, South Africa’s national demographics are: blacks 79.2%, coloureds 8.9%, Indians-Asians 2.5% and whites 8.9%.

The figures are drawn from the 2012-13 national department annual reports. The only department not assessed is state security, which does not produce a standard annual report.

The Employment Equity Act aims to ensure that the country’s workforce broadly represents its demographic profile by promoting previously disadvantaged South Africans on the basis of their race. The act has recently been in the spotlight after the Democratic Alliance reversed its position to oppose the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, which strengthens the original act by bolstering penalties and increasing the enforcement powers of the Department of Labour.

Twenty-one of the 33 departments exceed the census proportion of black South Africans. The department with the highest proportion of black staff is energy, with 93.2% of its 555 posts held by members of this race group. The department with the lowest proportion of black staff is the Treasury (69.4% of 1 189 positions).

However, the situation in the private sector differs. The Commission for Employment Equity, which falls under the Department of Labour, produces an annual report on the extent to which the public and private sector comply with the act. It has a specific focus on senior management positions. In its 2012-13 report, based on 23 312 reports submitted by companies and public institutions that fall under the act’s authority, it found that whites held 72.6% of top management positions, down from 81.5% in 2002.

The report was based on submissions by 4 831 large employers with an average of 1 097 employees each, and 17 181 small employers with an average of 49.7 employees.

The Employment Equity Act does not stipulate a cutoff date or ‘sunset clause’

In response to the act, some departments, most notably correctional services and the police, have introduced specific employment equity plans that call for racial quotas to achieve national demographic representivity. Both departments employ a significant number of staff — correctional services some 42 000 and the police just fewer than 200 000. Both are generally representative: 74.9% of the policeworkforce is black (10.6% coloured, 2.6% Indian and 11.8% white), and 72.3% of correctional services is black (13.7% coloured, 1.6% Indian and 12.4% white).

Both plans have faced numerous legal challenges to decisions to appoint or promote people according to their race, particularly in the Western Cape, where the demographics do not mirror the national distribution.

Most recently, the trade union Solidarity won a court case against the Department of Correctional Services. Labour Court Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker found that the decision to overlook the promotion of 10 employees on racial grounds was “not in line with the affirmative-action measures referred to in section 6 (2) (a) of the act”. He ordered the department to review its policy.

The Employment Equity Act does not stipulate a cutoff date or “sunset clause” by which time its provisions will cease to apply. Thus, even if an institution meets the act’s objectives, it is not exempt from its requirements.

Speaking at the employment equity and transformation indaba in April, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said of calls to introduce a sunset clause: “To make this call now is mischievous at best or, at worst, a callous disregard of history and its negative ramifications that will be felt way beyond the two decades of freedom.”

But some institutions, particularly in the public service, have long since met the requirement that their workforce be broadly demographically representative. As far back as October 2006, the Public Service Commission’s State of the Public Service Report found that 71% of the public service’s senior management service positions were held by “Africans” (blacks, coloureds and Indians).

In 2007, the DA unsuccessfully introduced a private member’s bill that proposed the amendment: “Affirmative action measures should only be activated in instances where designated groups are considered to be under-represented and should cease to be used where the desired levels of representation has been achieved.”