‘Race quotas’ law sparks fierce debate

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A new law aimed at increasing the employment of black people in South Africa has enraged some businesses and opposition parties who say it could see qualified workers lose their jobs.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020 into law in April. The bill amends the Employment Equity Act of 1998 with new measures to promote diversity and equality in the workplace.

The government has rebuffed the criticism of the new law, saying it is not going to result in job losses and only seeks to promote diversity in what the World Bank says is the world’s most unequal country.

But the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), has called for a “mass protest” in Cape Town on Wednesday against what it has dubbed the “race quotas” bill.

The DA has taken legal action to have parts of the new law struck down, arguing it violates South Africa’s constitutional principle of non-racialism.

DA leader John Steenhuisen charged that 600 000 people risk losing their job “because they have the ‘wrong’ skin colour or live and work in the ‘wrong’ areas”.

Three decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa remains plagued by stark inequalities. Almost one in two black South Africans were unemployed in the first three months of 2023, while the jobless rate was only 9.5% among white people, according to official figures.

The new law requires companies with more than 50 employees to submit equity plans reflecting the demography of the region they operate in and set out how they intend to achieve them. It also allows for the labour minister to set numerical targets for specific economic sectors. 

Gareth Ackerman, chairman of Pick n Pay, one of the country’s largest grocery retailers, said the law threatens private employers whose workforce does not mirror racial demographics. 

“This would have the effect of making large numbers of qualified people unemployed and substituting them with unqualified people,” he said this month.

But others disagree. 

“It does not mean that the white people are going to be removed in order to create space for the disadvantaged groups,” Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said.

Commenting on the law in May, legal firm Baker McKenzie said that fostering diversity has “proven to be good business practice” and “equal representation in the workforce is seen as a positive by investors”.

Cosatu, the largest trade union federation in the country, said the controversy surrounding the bill was overblown.

“It is a rational bill and not this big monster the DA is making it to be,” spokesman Matthew Parks said. 

White people account for less than 10% of the 60 million population but hold more than 60% of top management roles, according to a recent study, he said.

The bill is expected to come into operation in the coming months. 

The debate comes ahead of national elections next year. Polls suggest the ruling ANC risks seeing its share of the vote drop below 50%. — Agence France-Presse