Dear Editor
The DA is outraged and will vigorously fight against a pronouncement by the Minister of Employment & Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth, that her Department will make employers self-implement sectoral racial quotas, including forcing employers to decide and declare the race of their employees, where employees are not willing to disclose their race.
The DA confirms that we are consulting our lawyers, and commit to challenging this all the way through the courts.
Worse still, Minister Meth has confirmed that this crude racial classification to meet quotas will be put on employees based on “generic” definitions of persons of colour – these “generic” definitions have remained unchanged since 1998.
Minister Meth confirmed this in writing in a reply to a DA Parliamentary question.
If an employee does not wish to racially classify themselves, then according to Minister Meth their employer is legally mandated to do so on their behalf based “reliable, existing historical data”. This would entail that an employee would have to provide their family history, which is personal information, or have their race assumed. This is preposterous suggestion and appears to expect employers to conduct race inspections to tick a box, in order to avoid being fined.
This cannot stand in democratic South Africa – the DA refuses to allow this. There is no longer a Population Registration Act and no legal way to determine race.
The DA also condemns the Minister for revealing that no formal evidence was used by the Department in establishing the Employment Equity Regulations.
Our country is in dire need of redress and empowerment to address the injustices of our past. However, if we are to heal the divisions of our past, we must do so based on evidence, in the spirit of justice, and be grounded in our constitutional values of equality and non-racialism.
As the DA stands firm, the most effective tool to bring about redress is a growing economy that delivers jobs to all South Africans. The solution to redress is not by dividing up the limited jobs available to people based on made-up quotas and imposed racial classification.
South Africa continues to be one of the most unequal nations on earth, with more than 8 million South Africans unemployed and a small elite enriched, making the evidence against Employment Equity regulations undeniable.
In the spirit of doing what is right and in the best interests of all South Africans, we call on the Minister to repeal these unscientific and disastrous Employment Equity regulations, as well as other regulations that harm our economy as opposed to protecting workers.
It cannot stand that employers become racial classification agents.
The President has already committed to a comprehensive review of our country’s regulations, and Employment Equity must be the first under independent review.
Regards
Michael Bagraim MP
DA Spokesperson on Employment & Labour