Michelle Pietersen
EMPLOYMENT Equity statistics released by the Commission of Employment Equity have painted a bleak picture of transformation in the workplace, with the top management structures, nationally still being dominated
by whites at 70 percent, with blacks at 13.6 percent, Indians 8.4, coloureds 4.7 and foreigners 3.4 percent.
According to the report, the Western Cape was the worst-performing province in terms of transformation.
In the Western Cape, white males (63.8 percent) were over-represented in top management, followed by Mpumalanga (60.2 percent), Eastern Cape (59.4) and Free State (59.2), according to the report.
This is despite the coloured group making up 50.2 percent of the total economically active population, followed by blacks at 31.7 percent, whites 17.1 and Indians 1 percent. The figures were for economically active people.
According to the statistics, nationally, black males and females made up 76.2 percent, coloureds 10.6, whites 10.3 and Indians 2.8 percent of the economically active population.
Cosatu Western Cape said the figures were worse than it had anticipated.
“
What this points to is that the DA is creating a protective enclave for whites in the Western Cape, with them getting all the jobs, even though they are not the
sharpest knives in the drawer.
“This figure of 63 percent whites in senior positions is an insult to a society that should be transforming away from the apartheid advantages of old,” Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said.
Neither Premier Helen Zille nor her spokesperson, Michael Mpofu, could be reached, while DA provincial leader Patricia de Lille said she would comment today.
Beverley Schäfer, DA MPL and chair of the standing committee on economic opportunities, tourism and agriculture, said education was key to ensuring more people entered the jobs market. Also important was stimulating the economy for greater growth so more people across South Africa could get jobs.
“We don’t support quotas related to race or gender in the workforce which will entrench racial divisions… In previous years the Public Service Commission rated the Western Cape Premier’s Office as the most ‘representative’ out of the nine offices, scoring 70 percent,” she said.
Former government spokesperson and Progressive Professionals Forum president Jimmy Manyi said the figures warranted a review of the designated group of affirmative action beneficiaries and amendments to the legislation. “We are calling for the removal of white women and Indians from the designated group (in the Employment Equity Act).”