Coloured people must leave Western Cape agriculture
12 June 2023
Nationally, approximately one in four coloured employees will have to be replaced in order to meet the Minister of Labour’s sectoral targets which are indicated in the proposed employment regulations in terms of the new race law. This is one of the shocking facts from a report that Solidarity and the Cape Forum announced today in Cape Town.
Furthermore, coloured employees working in the agricultural sector in the Western Cape will have to be reduced, and many coloured women in the Western Cape will have to be replaced.
Companies that do business nationally and national government departments will apply the national targets in the Western Cape. In Gauteng, 85 000 coloured employees will have to be made redundant. No coloured person may be appointed in Limpopo.
These figures come from a report issued by the Cape Forum and Solidarity which analyses the possible impact of concept regulations proposed by the Minister of Labour in terms of the Employment Equity Amendment Act. This report has a specific focus on the possible impact of the proposed regulations on the coloured labour market.
“For us, of particular interest is the impact on the coloured community, but more specifically in the Western Cape. Although the data shows that theoretically there should be more coloured employees in the Western Cape, this is just a window-dressing,” Heindrich Wyngaard, Chairperson of the Cape Forum, said.
“The minister’s targets require that coloured women in various sectors will have to be replaced by black or coloured men. In the Western Cape alone, one in four coloured female health workers, one in eight coloured female workers in the accommodation and food sector and one in ten coloured female workers in trade will have to be replaced in order to meet the minister’s targets. Similarly, no new appointments of coloured people can be made in agriculture in the Western Cape, because then companies will no longer meet the minister’s targets,” Connie Mulder, Head of the Solidarity Research Institute, said.
“These targets are indicative of the ANC trying to interfere directly in the coloured community’s workplaces with officials in the Union Building who now want to decide how the Cape should do business. We reject such central planning of the economy and will fight more and more towards federalism,” Wyngaard said.
Although businesses that operate primarily in one province can choose whether to apply the provincial or national targets, any business that operates in more than one province is automatically committed to the national target.
“If the minister’s targets were to be applied to the labour market as it currently stands, approximately one in four coloured employees at the top four occupational levels, according to national targets, would have to vacate their jobs. Coloured employees at employers who only do business in the Western Cape, and coloured employees who work in one or two of the other provinces, will particularly be targeted according to the draft regulations,” Mulder said. Calculations in the report show that approximately 85 000 coloured employees in Gauteng will have to be replaced in order to meet the minister’s targets. Similarly, nationally approximately one out of two coloured employees working in agriculture, manufacturing, trade and finance will have to be replaced according to the minister’s sectoral targets.
“The message that the ANC is sending to the coloured community with these targets is clear – you will be tolerated in the Western Cape, provided you work in the right industries. In the rest of the country and the economy, you are not welcome,” Wyngaard concluded.
Click here for the report.
Issued by Connie Mulder, Head: Solidarity Research Institute, 12 June 2023
