Affirmative action must help fix centuries of prejudice

521 Captain Renate Barnard of the South African Police services, is taking her employers to the Labour court in Braamfontein near Johannesburg for unfair labour practice. 161109 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

521 Captain Renate Barnard of the South African Police services, is taking her employers to the Labour court in Braamfontein near Johannesburg for unfair labour practice. 161109 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Sep 10, 2014

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WE LIVE in a country with immense opportunity and a deep history of racism. Like other countries, our Rainbow Nation has a flaw in its societal fabric. In other nations it is religion, class, caste and colour. Here it is race.

That is why I understand the quandary of affirmative action prompted by a Constitutional Court case involving former Lieutenant-Colonel Renate Barnard.

Let us recap. Her case goes back to 2005 when she applied for the post of lieutenant-colonel, which was then called superintendent. She twice applied unsuccessfully for promotion to superintendent.

Despite recommendations by an interview panel and her divisional commissioner, the national police commissioner did not appoint her to the position on the basis that racial representation at the level of superintendent would be negatively affected. The position was advertised for a third time, but was withdrawn when she reapplied.

Her case has once again prompted a debate on the pros and cons of affirmative action, a South African plight.

Perhaps we can learn something from the original authors of affirmative action law, the Americans, particularly what was once said by ex-president Lyndon Johnson.

After he pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the US Congress, Johnson explained: “You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, ‘Now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire and choose the leaders you please.’

“You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, ‘You are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe you have been completely fair…’

“This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity – not just legal equity but human ability – not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.”

This statement is true even here at home. It is a pity that opponents of affirmative action are saying “enough is enough”. They say there comes a time when every one of us must begin to be judged based on criteria that do not include race, ethnicity, physical capabilities and gender.

Wherever there is a case like Ms Barnard’s one, it is easy to hear the extremists like the Solidarity trade union shouting the loudest. Wrapped in their personal agendas which seldom have much to do with enhancing the quality of life for anyone outside of their special interest group, these individuals stand to gain a lot if the economic infrastructure is tampered with by a restructuring of affirmative action policies.

Challengers of affirmative action focus on the past 18 years (affirmative laws were promulgated in 1996) of progress in entrenching racial equality.

Unfortunately, for all of us, the seeds of racial injustice were planted centuries ago. Tinkering with affirmative action after only 18 years ignores the vestiges of the past 300 years.

Indeed, tinkering with affirmative action policies will destroy carefully constructed bridges that democratic policies have helped lead gradually out of the dark ages of bigotry and racism.

The basic tenets of affirmative action involve providing opportunity for those locked out historically, a serious attempt to establish a level playing field. The need for redress still exists because racial discrimination continues, basically unabated.

It is a pity that most of white society, particularly organisations such as Solidarity, lives in a state of denial about how their race acquired its wealth and resources.

Actually many of the people who criticise affirmative action have benefited from it. They ignore the historical reality that discrimination against blacks constituted preferential treatment for whites and apartheid was a policy that reserved the best jobs, schools, neighbourhoods and business opportunities for whites.

They refuse to acknowledge that the advantages and privileges they enjoy today are the direct legacies of apartheid rule. They pretend not to understand that any present day removal of barriers against blacks is simply a removal of unjustifiable, preferential advantages for whites.

For me, any current anti-affirmative action debate confirms the adage that those who ignore their history are prone to repeat it. For 300 years, legal inequality subjugated blacks, the people who lived, loved, hoped, and died praying for justice.

Affirmative action programmes did not spring forth in a benevolent fit of innocent altruism. It is essential to recognise that the origins of affirmative action are very much intertwined with our painful history of racial discrimination in all spheres of life.

At the end of legalised racism, the policy was intended to advance the economic and educational achievements of minorities that have been victimised by past discrimination, has evolved through public consultation that culminated in the core legislation of the Public Services Act, the Employment Equity Act, the Skills Development Act and the Skills Development Levy Act.

With us discrimination remains king. Blacks are considered the lowest of the low in the pecking order in spite of their unique, yet unresolved, relationship with white society. The original intent of affirmative action is to bring fairness and justice to blacks for the legitimate, legal claim that blacks hold against our democratic government.

After 300 years of planned impoverishment, illiteracy, criminalisation and hopelessness, levelling the playing field for blacks must constitute more than giving them an equal opportunity to compete.

There are those who assume that affirmative action should be a temporary fix to redress inequality in the workplace and other business opportunities. That once blacks and whites are on an equal footing, there will be no reason to promote affirmative action.

We should all admit that after 20 years of democracy, it is clear that there is no quick and painless way to level the playing field. What is delaying and will continue to delay the end of affirmative action is inferior schooling and the lack of skills development thereof.

Those who want to end affirmative action policies should help deal with the wreckage of the school system that is producing hundreds of unemployable blacks.

Affirmative action will be with us for years to come not only because of the reluctance of some firms to employ blacks in more senior posts but because there is a shortage of literate and skilled blacks.

Check this out. Recent surveys show that our country’s adult literacy rate is just more than 73.2 percent. One damning study said 80 percent of black South Africans cannot read books meant for fifth-year primary school students and average literacy for whites has been found to be double that of blacks.

Statistics show that more than 90 percent of South Africans over the age of 18 with no formal education are black while 84 percent of those with a university education are white.

True, under the Employment Equity Act which in part seeks to redress the racial imbalances forced upon the workplace by apartheid, companies that employ more than 50 people must implement affirmative action programmes to diversify their workforce or face prosecution. However, according to annual workplace profile data, hundreds of companies from around the country have failed to comply.

The data show the upper echelons of management of firms continue to be predominately white and male, as was the case under apartheid, despite whites making up less than 10 percent of the population.

White men represent 61 percent of people in top management and 45 percent of all employees promoted to this level, while black men make up only 10 percent of senior managers and 13 percent of all employees promoted to this level, even though they make up nearly 80 percent of the population.

With the high illiteracy rate among blacks, affirmative action can never be a short-term solution.

Most affirmative action programmes establish racial ethnic criteria, but have done virtually nothing to improve the skills or competency levels of participants. This may seem a minor point, but assisting blacks to develop their potential is the cornerstone of an effective affirmative action policy. Otherwise, such efforts were, and still are, doomed to fail.

To effectively address the nation’s angst about affirmative action, the path of most effectiveness must be to build an educated and skilled nation. Until there is a solution for racism and inequalities in education, there will always be a need for some type of affirmative action.

Therefore affirmative action will not be ended in our lifetime.

Rich Mkhondo runs The Media and Writers Firm (www. Mediaandwritersfirm), a content development agency and reputation management consultancy.

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