There are only three parastatals in South Africa where blacks make up 50 percent or more of management, the SA Institute for Race Relations said on Wednesday.
This was in spite of the government's demand that the private sector conform to employment equity targets.
The institute said the three were SA Airways, where blacks accounted for 50 percent of management, the SA Forestry Company Limited (67 percent), and SA Express (67 percent).
It said the findings, based on replies to parliamentary questions, were contained in the latest edition of its annual South African Survey.
At power utility Eskom, of 21 top management members, only a third were black, a third Indian or coloured, and a third white.
Nearly half (48 percent) of Eskom's 388 senior management was white, about 30 percent black, six percent coloured, and 16 percent Indian.
Of the 407 members of the management of arms parastatal Denel, ten percent were black, five percent coloured, eight percent Indian, and 77 percent white.
Of the 102 members of the top management at Transnet, 41 percent were black, six percent coloured, 21 percent Indian, and 32 percent white.
Of the 495 members of senior management at Transnet, 39 percent were black, ten percent coloured, 19 percent Indian, and 33 percent white.
A researcher at the institute, Marius Roodt, said that private companies could not be expected to comply with the Employment Equity Act when parastatals did not.
“This is a reflection of the dire skills shortage in the country.” he said.
“Companies, and indeed parastatals, have to take on skilled personnel, no matter what the colour of their skin is.”
The institute said these figures did not reflect the demographics of the country.
Last year trade union Solidarity questioned the tenth report from the Commission for Employment Equity which it said “appears to judge all white people to be 'resistant to transformation'“.”
That report counted a total of 660,678 whites employed in the companies that submitted equity reports.
Of this total, only 10,954 (1.7 percent) were at top management level.
A further 37,755 (5.7 percent) were at senior management level and 139,949 (21.2 percent) were at professional level.
Solidarity said it felt that most South Africans of all race groups would never occupy senior positions and that this was the case globally.
The union said that of the 91 percent of the workforce covered by the report left when the top three levels were removed, white people constituted 11.7 percent which was lower than white people’s share of the economically active population.
Employment equity is a legal requirement to prevent unfair discrimination at the workplace and sets in place a number of procedures to achieve this, including making employers hire from designated race groups considered under-represented. - Sapa