The public face of the ANC government - its newly appointed spokesman Jimmy Manyi - has been accused of “crude racism” for claiming that coloured people are over-represented in the Western Cape and should move elsewhere.
Director-general of the department of labour at the time he made the comments in 2010, Manyi - who was also the president of the Black Management Forum (BMF) - said during a television programme there was an “over-supply” of coloureds in the Western Cape and suggested they “spread (out) in the rest of the country”.
Trade union Solidarity put Manyi’s comments on YouTube on Thursday, ostensibly to strengthen its claim that amendments to the Employment Equity Act would have a negative impact on coloured workers in the province.
On Thursday night mayoral committee member for social development Grant Pascoe accused the ANC of being obsessed with race and slammed Manyi’s comments as “crude racism”.
“Jimmy Manyi is wrong. There’s no such thing as too many coloureds (or whites, or Indians or blacks). The DA in Cape Town rejects with contempt Jimmy Manyi’s attack on residents of the Western Cape. His view shows his lack of understanding of the history and people of our beautiful country, and cannot be allowed to stand. Despite what Mr Manyi may think, South African citizens are free to live wherever they choose, regardless of their skin colour.”
He said Manyi’s views contradicted the department’s assertion that the proposed amendment to the Act was not to drive coloured people out of their jobs.
“If Mr Manyi’s statement is an accurate reflection of government policy, the Act is an attempt at social engineering. The ANC must stop its obsession with race,” said Pascoe.
ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile hit back and said Solidarity “spoke on behalf of the DA and had no interest in coloured workers”. He said Manyi was neither an ANC nor a government spokesman at the time of the television interview.
Mjongile said the ANC had an ideology to build a non-racial society and that this included redressing inequality.
“Coloured people are black and they are a direct beneficiary group of equity in employment. Solidarity is a union of white Afrikaner workers. Solidarity speaks on behalf of the DA which believes all of us are equal and there is no programme to fast-track those historically disadvantaged.
“Everything Solidarity speaks of basically advances the DA ideology of separate development.”
The proposed amendments, drafted during Manyi’s tenure at the department, will see coloureds instantly overshoot their equity targets in the province.
The draft bill - one of four contested labour bills currently under discussion - will change the demographic benchmark for measuring compliance with equity targets from a regional to a national standard. If the bill becomes law, it will force employers in the Western Cape to ensure that about four of every five new appointments - and four of every five promotions within a company - are reserved for black African workers, experts have warned.
The changes will similarly impact on coloured workers in the Northern Cape and Indian workers in KwaZulu-Natal.
These changes were drafted during Manyi’s tenure at the department before he was sacked by then labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana in November.
The proposed changes are not the only mark Manyi has left. The proposal to penalise companies who fail to meet equity targets by fining them up to 10 percent of annual turnover is an idea Manyi himself is on record as pushing as far back as 2007.
During a talk show hosted by KykNet’s Freek Robinson in 2010 Manyi said: “About coloured people: I think it’s very important for coloured people to understand that South Africa belongs to them in totality - not just the Western Cape. So this over-representation of coloured people is not working for them.” At which point Robinson is heard interjecting: “So they must go on a Great Trek” - to which Manyi responded: “They should spread (out) in the rest of the country.”
Asked if he was speaking as director-general or BMF chairman during the interview, Manyi said on Thursday that it “doesn’t matter. The message would have been the same”.
Solidarity general secretary Dirk Hermann said on Thursday the proposed amendments were therefore not ambiguous, as some in the ANC had suggested.
“In fact, the amendment is a clear reflection of the effect of Manyi’s ideological framework of representation and is not an inadvertent mistake,” said Hermann. - Cape Times