The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is dismayed by the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s spurious attack on Employment Equity with their declared intention to have the Act declared unconstitutional in the North Gauteng High Court on 6 May.
Whilst the DA is free to take any law to court for constitutional verification, we are confident their court challenge will be dismissed as legal adventurism. It is extremely disappointing that in this year when dog whistling has been taken to extraordinarily dangerous levels, the DA has in a moment of ill-considered rashness failed to resist the temptation to jump on this toxic bandwagon.
The Constitution is eloquently clear in its requirements for the state to seek measures to address the discriminatory legacies of the past and the inequalities of today, including through employment equity and fair discrimination. Any government which fails to live up to these fundamental constitutional prescripts can and has been taken to court previously.
The Employment Equity Act is nearly as old as our hard-won democracy and stood the test of time, including previous court reviews. It is peculiar that the DA’s court challenge omits to acknowledge the well-considered 2023 amendments to the Employment Equity Act.
These amendments sought, after extensive engagements between labour and business at Nedlac and similar public hearings at Parliament, to strike a fair balance between easing administrative burdens on SMMEs, reflecting South Africa’s demographic diversity (including regional), and equally to nudge employers to do better to ensure all employees have a fair chance to fulfil their full potential, in particular those historically denied equal opportunity.
These changes include easing reporting requirements on SMMEs, adapting employment equity targets to take into account our regional demographic diversity and to adopt more focused targets for sectors falling painfully behind employment equity progress. The Regulations provide ample time, e.g. five years and modest targets, well below population demographics, for employers to work towards. As with all laws, exemptions are provided for employers who have tried but for a variety of reasons cannot achieve their targets.
It is alarming that the DA court papers are premised upon fake news about the Act and its Regulations. No where in either does it provide for any worker, of any colour or gender, to lose their job. None. Any statement claiming they do should be taken as seriously as the flat earth hysteria on social media. Employment Equity and transformation remains an extremely emotive matter for all workers and should be handled with the necessary care and sensitivity and not used to score likes on social media.
The Constitution, guided by the call of the Freedom Charter, declares that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White. The Employment Equity Act and its Regulations speak to that, as do the realities of the lack of tangible transformation in the private sector where 31 years into democracy, 60% of managerial posts are held by White South Africans, and nearly all low-income posts by African and Coloured compatriots. Unemployment too is inevitably guided by the colour of one’s skin. These are the painful realities politicians must appreciate.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Cell: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za