Johannesburg - Black professionals – including lawyers, engineers and accountants – have appealed to Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party to rescue them from “oppression” by their white counterparts.
They told party leaders they were treated as inferiors, that their knowledge was being undermined for racial reasons.
Black professionals who attended the EFF’s professional’s forum in Joburg on Friday said they told Dali Mpofu and EFF policy chief Floyd Shivambu that white-owned or -led firms made them work twice as hard to get recognition compared to their white colleagues.
Malema was not present at the gathering, convened by Mpofu to get the views of black professionals on the country’s direction and the party’s policies.
A black attorney, who owns a law firm, said on Sunday they poured their hearts out to the EFF on their treatment by major law, auditing and engineering companies.
They told the EFF that:
* Their knowledge and capabilities were doubted and treated as inferior compared to that of their white colleagues with the same qualifications.
* They were often paid lower salaries compared to white colleagues with the same qualifications and experience levels.
* They were mostly excluded from major projects that could develop them professionally.
* They were forced to report to less-qualified whites, who were paid high salaries.
* They were being used for window dressing by white-run companies desperate to meet BEE requirements to get government contracts.
The attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared a backlash on his business, said blacks were forced to “work on the periphery” of the real work because most companies were run by whites “who don’t believe in our knowledge”.
“They don’t respect us as people. They don’t respect our intellectual ability. They would subject us to this because of our skin colour.”
EFF central command team member responsible for the professionals, Hlaiseka Chawane, confirmed that those concerns were raised.
“They say they are not exposed to work that is going to develop them professionally. Instead they are reduced to administrators and messengers. We will take up their cases,” said Chawane.
Business Unity SA, which represents 90 percent of private sector business in the country, said the points raised at that meeting were “not far-fetched”.
The Star