More than ten years into our democracy, institutional racism continues to reign supreme.  The only difference is that previously it was more overt, but now it has assumed sophisticated forms in day-to-day work practices.

Minister, the 8th CEE Annual report covers the period from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. It provides, amongst other things, an analysis of Employment Equity (EE) Reports received from employers in October 2007 and compares progress or the lack of it to EE Reports received in 2003 - this is when only large employers reported. 

Information in this report still shows continued gross under-representation of Africans, Coloureds and People with Disabilities within the designated groups in key areas of the labour market. In addition, it is disturbing to note that the employment trends of People with Disabilities mirrors the disproportionate representation of White people against other racial groupings, i.e. even amongst People with Disabilities Whites are more likely to be employed than other race groups.

At the Top Management level, Blacks increased by 5 percentage points from 23.8% in 2003 to 28.8% in 2007. This is the case despite their Economically Active Population (EAP) being 87.9 % - Africans and Coloureds are the most under-represented within this group.  Africans increased by 3.9 percentage points from 14.9% to 18.8%. This is the case even though their representation is approximately one-quarter of their EAP (74.8%).  Coloureds decreased by 0.1 percentage points from 4% to 3.9%, which means their representation is about a third of their EAP.

At Top Management women increased by 3.7 percentage points over the same period from 14.1% to 17.8%, which is approximately two-and-half times below their EAP (45.8%).  African women representation increased by 2.2 percentage points from 3.7% to 5.9% - their representation is approximately six times below their EAP (34.4%).  Coloured women representation increased by 0.1 percentage points from 0.9% to 1.0%, a far cry from their EAP that stands at 5%.  White women who are almost twice their EAP increased from 8.8% to 9.8%.

At the Senior Management level the picture is very similar to that of Top Management, Blacks increased by only 5.1 percentage points from 27.3% in 2003 to 32.4% in 2007. Africans increased by 3.9 percentage points from 14.2% to 18.1% and Coloureds decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 6.3% to 6.1%. 

Women increased by 2.6 percentage points at the Senior Management level from 22.3% to 24.9%.  Black women increased by 2.3 percentage points from 7.4% to 9.7%. African women representation stood at 5.5%, the representation of Coloured women stood at 1.8% and White women stood at 15.2% in 2007.

Minister, the Commission is especially troubled by the progress being made at the next level, i.e. the Professionally Qualified & Middle Management level.  We believe that this level lays down the foundation and is the pillar for designated groups to reach equitable representation at the upper two levels.  The slow progress that is reflected in the upper two levels could be largely blamed on the cracks that are abundantly clear in the under-representation of the designated groups at this level.

Blacks actually decreased by 8.7 percentage points from 50.0% to 41.3%  at the Professionally Qualified & Middle management level.  Within the Black group, Africans suffered the most severe injury by decreasing with 14.9 percentage points from 39.0% in 2003 to 24.1% in 2007, which means their representation is now approximately two-and-a-half times below their EAP.  Whites increased by a huge 8 percentage points from 49.2% to 57.2% over the same period.  

Women representation decreased by 3 percentage points from 36.4% to 33.4%, with Black women decreasing by 8.9 percentage points from 23.8% to 14.9%. African women were wounded the most by decreasing with 9.1 percentage points from 17.7% to 8.6%, with Coloureds having some way to go with their representation standing at 3.2%.  White women increased by 3.6 percentage points from 14.9% to 18.5%.

Minister, the representation of people with disabilities remains a sore point both in the private and public sector.  Their representation has dropped from 1% in 2003 to 0.5% in 2007.  Much more has to be done in this area in order to ensure that we create a society for all.

It has come to our attention that a number of people are excluded from the selection process due to psychometric testing that has a cultural bias in terms of being too Eurocentric - this is despite the fact that the law prohibits psychological, assessment/testing unless it is fair, valid and reliable. Discriminatory practices with racial prejudice have to somehow be removed from the corporate culture that has been pervading our society for too long now.

A striking feature of this report is the continued trend of over representation of Whites in the middle to upper levels. The representation of people with disabilities and Africans is the highest at the semi-skilled and unskilled occupational levels.  While Black representation at these levels is more or less at their EAP, White representation at these levels is about one-eleventh of theirs.

This is further anecdotal evidence of the racial stereotypes that see Black people mainly operating at the lowest levels of organizations - also an obvious characteristic at the Public Hearings on Discrimination in the Workplace held by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Labour in September 2007.

This highlights the fact that the challenge of creating a non-discriminatory and equal society remains an ongoing battle in our country.  In order to remedy and overcome some of the challenges, the Commission has planned targeted engagements with NEDLAC, particularly BUSA, and the Public Service, which will be reported on in our next report.  With this in mind, I take this opportunity on behalf of the Commission to share the privilege and honour to present to you the 8th CEE Annual Report.

This is the text of a speech given by Employment Equity Commission Chairperson, Jimmy Manyi at Pretoria, Laboria House, September 16 2008 Issued by the Department of Labour. The Commission for Employment Equity's 2007 - 2008 report can be found here.