File photo: Henk Kruger File photo: Henk Kruger
The Western Cape ANC has weighed in on the controversy around proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act (EEA), announcing that it plans to “urgently address” any “unintended consequences” of the bill with the labour minister.
Yesterday, Western Cape ANC secretary Songezo Mjongile said the party’s provincial executive committee would meet the Labour Minister, Mildred Oliphant, to “inform her of the provincial perspective”. The issue would also be taken up with the ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe.
However, Mjongile said: “We caution the likes of the neo-liberal DA, Solidarity and other right-wing parties to not stir racial tensions. Mischievous interpretations by the (sic) ilk are aimed at entrenching racial polarisation.
“The issue of job creation remains a key part of the ANC’s programme.”
The Department of Labour has drafted amendments to the EEA that say companies should use national rather than provincial demographics to meet employment equity targets. The amended section 42 of the Employment Equity Bill reads that in determining whether employers have implemented employment equity policies, the “demographic profile of the economically active population” may be taken into account. It proposes that the words “national and regional” be deleted.
Labour law expert and president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, Michael Bagraim, said the proposed amendments were “unrealistic” and would not work.
Bagraim said: “The last thing we need is new regulations which have more to do with social engineering than productivity.”
He said it was a fact that the make-up of the labour force varied in each province.
“These are local realities and if we don’t respect them, we will be unrealistic. Businesses do not want to be put in a position where it has to use a new form of migratory labour to meet racial quotas. If we want economic growth and industries that are productive and globally competitive, we must use the best people for the job and not introduce a range of requirements that do not relate to the actual work.”
A director in the employment law department at Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, and editor of Labour Law for Managers, Lizle Louw, said she did not believe the amendments would automatically exclude the regional economically active population or that only national demographics had to be considered.
However, the chief director of labour relations in the Labour Department, Thembinkosi Mkalipi, said the intention was for national demographics to be considered.
Louw said: “Should this very unlikely proposition, however, be true, it will be untenable and will have to be constitutionally challenged.”
Louw said section 42 had to be taken into account with section 15 of the EEA that “affirmative action measures include the appointment of suitably qualified persons from designated groups, which means black people, women and people with disabilities. ‘Black people’ includes Africans, coloureds and Indians.”
DA MP Ian Ollis said the proposed legislation needed to be reviewed. - Cape Times