Cape Town - Geo-Nita Baartman considers herself previously disadvantaged - her mother was pulled out of school at the age of nine and later worked her “fingers to the bone” supporting three children.
These days, Baartman, a coloured woman from Ceres who works in the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), feels she is being punished. “I fail to understand why I sit here today, 2013, to defend myself over policies I have no control over,” she said on Thursday.
She was testifying in the Labour Court in the landmark case between 10 DCS employees and the department over its employment equity plan they believe resulted in them being discriminated against and passed over for promotions.
The department’s equity targets are in line with national, not provincial, demographics.
Baartman, an applicant in the case, had applied for a post as an assistant director within the department and was shortlisted, but did not get it.
An application to deviate from the equity targets was applied for so she could be appointed, but this had been turned down.
On Thursday, she testified that she felt she had suffered under apartheid. Baartman said her mother had been taken out of school at nine years old.
She watched her mother “work her fingers to the bone” to support three children. “Her whole life she had to hold down two jobs,” Baartman said.
Baartman said she managed to obtain two degrees at university under trying financial circumstances. Had it not been for a bursary, Baartman may not have managed to do so.
She said in her experience of apartheid, she did not feel black people had been treated worse than coloured people.
Under cross-examination Dumisa Ntsebeza, SC, put it to Baartman that during apartheid the Western Cape had been the “home of the coloured people” and had been protected from “natives” - what black people had been called at that time.
He put it to her that the government had wanted to remove “natives” from the province.
Baartman said she heard what he was saying, but could not understand why she had to defend herself over these policies.
When Ntsebeza said imbalances created by apartheid had to be redressed, Baartman said she now found herself applying for jobs against candidates who had matriculated in 1999 and was told they would get preference for the job. “I feel I’m being punished over things I don’t have control over,” she said.
During re-examination Baartman said inmates were picking up on the divisions with the provincial DCS that were being caused by the equity plan.
“It starts to affect the inmates as well,” she said.
Baartman said this - inmates picking up on the divisions - had resulted in incidents at Pollsmoor prison and Allandale prison.