Coloureds welcome at DCS, but not in Western Cape

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said in the Cape Town Labour Court today that coloured people are overrepresented in the Western Cape; however, they are not being discriminated against on racial grounds as they are welcome to apply for DCS jobs in other provinces. The court has reserved judgment in Solidarity's application for an interdict against the DCS's enforcement of its controversial affirmative action plan.

Dirk Hermann, Solidarity Deputy General Secretary, said the DCS's defence is nothing else but a massive social engineering programme. "The DCS viewpoint means that affirmative action will be a major social engineering programme in the country because, wherever people are overrepresented, they would have to be moved. The verdicts are similar to those passed in 2010 by Jimmy Manyi, government spokesperson and former labour director-general, namely that coloureds are overconcentrated in the Western Cape. Where Manyi said it in theory, the DCS carries it out in practice ─ even defending it in court."

Judgment in the case is reserved until Friday, 24 August. The interdict is to prevent the DCS from filling the positions of five DCS employees on whose behalf Solidarity is conducting legal proceedings against the department. In May of this year, Solidarity filed papers in the Cape Town Labour Court on behalf of five of its members in a case against the DCS's controversial affirmative action plan. The union was not only seeking a ruling that its members be promoted but also that the affirmative action plan of the DCS be declared invalid in its entirety. Solidarity petitioned the court to force the DCS to leave their positions vacant.

Statement issued by Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary: Solidarity, and Dirk Groenewald, Head: Labour Court Division, Solidarity, August 21 2012

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