COSATU statement on Western Cape employment equity figures
11th September 2012
COSATU is not surprised about the Commissioner for employment equity report showing that the W Cape is the worst in the country in terms of employment equity in both the private and the public sector.
This in our view is directly related to the attitude of the DA and the Premier and their policies of fit for purpose. This gives the officials the justification to disregard the employment equity provisions of the law. It is also the surest way of the DA to defend the generational advantages of whites in the Western Cape, albeit at the cost of other groupings. The figures for the public service are in the main for full time employees, but we know the advantages for the employment of whites are even more revealing in the consultants that the Provincial Government employs.
The private sector takes their cue from the Provincial Government in respect of disregarding the employment equity obligations. They get the sense from the DA that this Province has no obligation to comply with employment equity obligations. So the generational advantages of apartheid are also defended and maintained in the private sector in the Province of the Western Cape. The cosy relations between many businesses and the Provincial Government are maintained to defend the privileges accrued under apartheid, and keep the W Cape separate from the rest of SA.
This figure confirms all the anecdotal stories about how the workplaces are made unwelcome for black people, by white cliques with the tacit approval of white management. It also confirms the sense that is pervasive that the DA is trying to create the last bastion against equality and for the defence of the apartheid generational advantage of the white community.
All South Africans need to follow the employment equity provisions so that we can honour the social contract between black and white communities at the end of Apartheid. Where we said whites could hold onto their privileges from apartheid, but they have to agree to active steps to stop the exclusion of black people. This policy of the DA and their refusal to promote racial equity is leading to growing tensions and will spill over into the kind of conflict we saw in Marikana. National government must take decisive action against the DA in this Province to ensure compliance with the National Legislation and stop this racial advantage and preference for white communities and the maintenance of the apartheid generational advantage. To not do this will only undo the strides made in promoting racial harmony across the society, for short term political gain for the DA.
We further support Woolworths in their employment equity plan and caution Solidarity from populist kinds of threats that seek to defend the generational advantage of white communities against the imperative of employment equity.
Statement issued by COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, September 11 2012
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