Aziz Hartley and
Crystal Orderson
THE Western Cape has the worst employment equity record in the country, according to the latest report of the Commission for Employment Equity.
Releasing the 2011-2012 annual report at Parliament yesterday, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said the Western Cape was the worst performing province in terms of race “at nearly every occupational level”, and among the worst performing in relation to black women.
“The Western Cape is performing badly both in the public and private sector,” she said.
Both national and regional demographics had been used during formulation of the report, Labour Department chief director Thembinkosi Mkalipi said, since employers were required by law to consider both when they recruited employees.
National demographics had been used to evaluate national government departments and provincial demographics to access provincial departments or private workplaces, he said.
In the Western Cape, white men occupied just about half (47.9 percent) of all senior management positions, compared to 11.2 percent for coloured men, six percent for African and 3.9 percent for Indian men. By comparison, in Gauteng 44.6 percent of men in senior management were white, 13.9 percent African, 6.8 percent Indian and 3.6 percent coloured.
White women in the Western Cape made up 18.1 percent of senior management, compared to 6.4 percent for coloured women, 2.7 percent for African women and 1.7 percent for Indian women.
In the Western Cape government, 32.7 percent of men in senior management were white, 27.4 percent coloured, 11.5 percent African and 1.6 percent Indian.
Of all the provinces, the Western Cape also made the least progress in employment of skilled Africans. But the province fared well when it came to the employment of coloureds.
Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said the report confirmed anecdotal
evidence about how workplaces were made unwelcoming for black people by white cliques, with the tacit approval of white management. “The cosy relations between many businesses and the provincial government are maintained to defend the privileges accrued under apartheid, and keep the province separate from the rest of the country,” said Ehrenreich.
He urged the national government to take action against the Western Cape to ensure it complied with employment equity legislation. “Not to do this will only undo the strides made in promoting racial harmony across the society – for short term political gain for the DA,” he said.
Zak Mbhele, spokesman for Premier Helen Zille, said Oliphant was “making a meal out of labelling” the province a poor performer in the report. He said the Western Cape would continue to implement strategies and interventions aimed at achieving employment equity targets. “The reality is a dire shortage of skills and experience, with the private sector competing with the government for skills and experience. Service delivery will always be the measure upon which we judge ourselves.”
Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Michael Bagraim said: “I think the minister is misinterpreting the legislation. The minister wants to reflect national demographics and not provincial demographics and in this way is trying to force her interpretation on to provincial and national government as well as the business community.”
He believed the application of national demographics would be tested when the Labour Court ruled on a matter involving a group of Department of Correctional Service employees.
Bagraim said the Western Cape had very few qualified black professionals.
“They are mostly in Gauteng. We have a pool of lower skilled people coming from the Eastern Cape who find it difficult to get a job. It is very unfair to them because they did not get proper schooling. It is also unfair of the minister to judge the province in this way,” Bagraim said.
Employers that fail to meet their equity target could be hit with heavy fines which could be increased from R900 000 to as much as 10 percent of an employer’s annual turnover, according to proposed amendments to labour legislation approved by the cabinet last week and which are now set to come before Parliament.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill 2012 was approved by the cabinet last week though the stiffer penalties it proposes failed to win approval at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
Trade union Solidarity has argued that the amendments would give the minister too much power.