Co-ordinated opposition will prevail against Employment Equity Amendment Act
6 June 2023
Sakeliga welcomes the resolution to oppose the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA), signed today at the invitation of Solidarity by more than thirty organisations.
The EEAA will be defeated not only by businesses organically resisting its implementation but importantly also by the co-ordinated and growing opposition of independent organisations in business and civil society and political parties. As a co-signatory, Sakeliga looks forward to continued co-operation with the signatories regarding litigation, public advocacy, and other international and local efforts to counter the Act.
The EEAA has no prospect of successful implementation. Ultimately, it requires that every business everywhere in the country should reflect in every dimension the racial and other demographic ratios of the national population. To the extent that implementation and enforcement is attempted, it will meet with business communities who have no other option but to avoid or defy this impossible, harmful and morally unacceptable Act.
Organisations in attendance today included civil society organisations and political parties, with more than half the organisations being business-focussed and spanning industry organisations, chambers of commerce, and employer organisations.
Sakeliga’s legal team is currently preparing a court application with due consideration of the public interest aspect of a favourable business environment. We will make further announcements on this in the course of June 2023.
Text of resolution:
Resolution No to race law 6 June 2023
We, the undersigned, along with dozens of other organisations and millions of others hereby place on record our protest against the government’s latest race law and regulations.
We represent businesspeople, political parties, trade unions, agricultural organisations, educational organisations and numerous other civic organisations.
We will, each in our own way, record our protest against the law.
We reject a system of social engineering that grants power to the Minister of Employment and Labour to manipulate South African society on the basis of race.
We call on the South African government to tackle education and training to create a sound, skilled labour market.
The guidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on special measures for redress and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) state, among others, that special measures must be temporary, cannot focus solely on race, must focus on the socio-economic position of people and must emphasise training and development.
We call on the South African government to adhere to the ILOs and ICERD guidelines.
We also call on international forums to put pressure on the government to keep to international norms.
Our protest is not just against a law and its regulations, but it is also about the economy that must grow and create jobs for the benefit of all.
ENDS
Statement issued by Piet le Roux, CEO: Sakeliga, 6 July 2023
