DCS still doesn’t heed court’s ruling
Solidarity asks minister, director general to intervene
16 September 2015
Trade union Solidarity today gave the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Zack Modise, and the Director General of Labour, a final admonition to subject to scrutiny the affirmative action practices of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).
This comes after the National Commissioner indicated last month that all vacant posts in the DCS had to be filled by 1 October 2015. Moreover, the DCS instructed all management areas to give preference to the national demography in the case of all appointments. Moreover, the regional demography may only be considered by way of a special request to the National Commissioner.
“There is no difference between the process the DCS is now following in respect of appointments and the one the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court had already found to be discriminatory in nature. This is a clear disregard of the court order obliging the DCS to also take a region’s demography into consideration. Based on some technicalities the DCS is now trying to manipulate the ruling of the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court to enforce its racial targets,” Dirk Groenewald, Head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices said.
Consequently, Solidarity requested the National Commissioner to withdraw his earlier instructions. “We also requested the minister to intervene as the right to equality and human dignity of thousands of DCS employees is threatened because of government’s implementation of the national race demography. Moreover, we believe the Director General has the power to investigate these malpractices. Should the said persons not act as desired, our legal team has already been instructed to investigate further legal action,” Groenewald said.
On 3 November this year, Solidarity will also tackle the DCS in the Constitutional Court on behalf of ten of its members. The trade union is disputing the Labour Appeal Court’s finding that there was no clear evidence that those members would have been appointed to promotional positions had the DCS used the regional demography as guideline.
“We do not agree with the court’s view on this as a panel had identified our members as the most suitable candidates for the posts concerned. We therefore believe our members would have been appointed had the DCS not enforced the national racial demography. We will therefore dispute this part of the judgment in the Constitutional Court,” Groenewald said.
Earlier, Solidarity had indicated that more than 1,1 million coloured South Africans would have to relocate to another province so the economically active population EAP in the Western Cape can reflect the national racial division. In addition, around 300 000 white people would have to relocate from Gauteng to other provinces.
“Clearly, government’s implementation of the national race demography poses a major threat to the democratic freedom of all South Africans,” Groenewald said.
Statement issued by Dirk Groenewald, Head: Centre for Fair Labour Practices, Solidarity
