The Democratic Alliance has today lodged a complaint of improper conduct with the Public Protector, against Commission for Employment Equity Chairperson Jimmy Manyi (text of the letter follows below). Manyi appears to be abusing his position as CEE Chairperson to run an increasingly politicised and racially divisive campaign, seemingly on behalf of the Black Management Forum (BMF).
As such, he has turned the CEE, which is supposed to be an independent body that advises the Labour Minister on employment equity policy and codes of good practice, into:
- An increasingly politicised activist organisation;
- A springboard for his own personal advancement; and,
- A platform from which to advance his personal views and the views of other organisations to which he is affiliated, such as the Black Management Forum.
Manyi has muddled his positions at the CEE and the BMF to the extent that their regular duo appearances are now referred to as the "Jimmy Manyi show".
The DA has no doubt that Manyi has already undermined the work of the Commission.
He based his claims that the skills shortage was an "urban legend", and justified his hitting out at so-called "corporate house niggers", on the statistics and conclusions contained in the 7th Annual Report of the Commission on Employment Equity. Yet trade union Solidarity, in an extensive scientific audit, concludes that this report was:
- flawed and biased in a number of respects; and
- that it was contradicted by a number of other authoritative studies.
If the Public Protector finds confirm the DA's suspicions, it will constitute serious misconduct and mean that the CEE's integrity has been undermined in terms of section 29(9) of the Employment Equity Act. Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana would then be obliged to take action against Manyi and restore the CEE to its former independence.
Text of the Complaint:
Dear Advocate M Lawrence Mushwana
I herewith, on behalf of the Official Opposition, the Democratic Alliance, request:-
that your office investigate the suspected improper conduct of the Chairperson of the Commission on Employment Equity, Mr Jimmy Manyi, as per the provisions contained in Section 182 of the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996) and, in terms of the provisions of the Public Protector Act (No. 23 of 1994).
Section 29(4) of the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998) states that the chairperson of the Commission on Employment Equity:
(b) Must act impartially when performing any function of the Commission;
(c) May not engage in any activity that may undermine the integrity of the Commission;
(d) Must not participate in forming or communicating any advice on any matter in respect of which they have a direct financial interest or any other conflict of interest.
The Democratic Alliance suspects that Mr Manyi may have violated these provisions, and may be continuing to do so, in light of the following:
1.) On 22 May, he presented to the Portfolio Committee on Labour the 7th Commission on Employment Equity Annual Report 2006/2007, the contents of which is used to advise the Minister, or to inform the execution of any other function in terms of section 30 of the Employment Equity Act;
2.) The scientific quality and validity, and therefore the impartiality, of the research, analyses and conclusions presented in this report is suspect because:
(a) It contains a number of anomalies, it features non-comparable data sets, it is selective in its presentation of the facts and it contains a number of technical and computational errors;
(b) Its findings are contradicted by other important and trusted data-bases and studies, such as the South African Advertising Research Foundation's AMPS Surveys and the UCT/Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing and TNS Research Surveys' study on the black middle class or so-called "black diamonds";
(c) It does not agree with information that informs other government programmes such as those executed under the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) and the Joint Initiative of Priority Skills Acquisitions (Jipsa);
(d) It contradicts evidence of the skills shortage experienced by the public sector as reflected in the Public Service Commission's 2007 State of the Public Service Report and State of Representativeness in the Public Service Report; and,
(e) It is not supported by the vacancy figures for departments and entities across all spheres of the government;
3.) Mr Manyi has used his seriously flawed report of the Commission on Employment Equity to conduct a campaign through his position as the chair of the CEE, as well as through his position as President of the Black Management Forum - the latter organisation's increasing partnering with the CEE in the execution of this campaign having become such a regular feature that their viewpoints have become indistinguishable from one another to the public;
4.) Mr Manyi has embarked on this campaign to advance a particular subjective viewpoint that accords with his own personal views and objectives, rather than with his role and position and the CEE;
5.) In the execution of the said campaign, Mr Manyi has made a number of derogatory and racially divisive remarks, such as "corporate house nigger"; and
6.) With special reference to the proceedings of the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Labour held on 5 September, Mr Manyi has seen fit to personally and in a politicised manner attack public representatives that do not share his opinion.
We have not lodged the complaints contained in this letter with any other agency. We therefore trust and appreciate that your office will do its utmost to bring the investigations with respect to this complaint to a speedy resolution, and that it will produce the necessary recommendations that will rectify the matter.
Please be assured of the Democratic Alliance's willingness to assist in providing any information to which we may have access.
Sincerely,
Anchen Dreyer MP
DA spokesperson for Labour
