Employment Equity report: Still no transformation in SA workplace

The Commission of Employment Equity released its latest report in Irene on Thursday. 

The commission’s chairperson Tabia Kabinde says although black South Africans represent close to 79% of the economically active population, very few are in top management.

“When we start talking transformation, we want the workplace to represent 78,5% of the black economically active population, and it would be followed by the coloured, white and Indian population.

“However, 67.7% of the positions are occupied by the white group, followed by the African group at 14,3%, the Indian group at 9,4%, the colored group stands at 5,1% while the foreign nationals make up 3.4%,” says Kabinde.

The Department of Labour says it received just over 27 000 employment equity reports.

The department's Aggy Moiloa says some academic spaces, such as Unisa, are also not complying with employment equity.

“In our own analysis when we went to inspect the academic space, we found that there were pockets of foreign nationals, so we would find that they occupy 3-5% of management.

“There is nothing wrong in employing foreign nationals in instances that the country does not have such skills but the point we drive is that there is a responsibility to employ capable nationals in the country. In instances where you have tested the market and satisfied where there isn’t such a skill then you can bring in foreign nationals but there are processes you have to go through,” she says.

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Proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act are being discussed at Nedlac.

The proposed amendments include revisiting the definition of designated employers, setting of sector targets as an enabling provision to monitor and measure compliance.