White people forced out of civil service

5 June 2018

There is still no sign that Affirmative Action (AA) will let up, despite the fact that demographic targets in the civil service have already been reached and that white people, in particular, are being forced out of the state’s workforce and have already been underrepresented for quite some time now.

From the answers provided by the Minister of Civil Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, in response to a written question by the FF Plus, it can be gleaned that all the population groups’ position in the public labour market has improved over the last few years, except for white people’s. (Question and answer attached).

Black people, who made up 79,2% of the population according to the last census, are overrepresented in the civil service with 2,2% at 81, 4%.

White people, with a representation of 7,5% in the civil service are currently 1,4% underrepresented (white people made up 8,9% of the population in the last census). A mere four years ago, white people’s representation in the civil service was 8,8%. The decrease of 1,3% goes to show that white people are fast being forced out of the state’s workforce.

Coloured people are underrepresented with 0,3%, although their position did improve slightly over the last four years. Indian people are right on target with 2,5%.

The oppression of white and coloured people is unacceptable. Clearly the targets for restitution in the public sector have long been reached and what is happening now is reversed racism.

Because South Africa’s Constitution stipulates that there should be equal representation, the state is legally obliged to do away with Affirmative Action (AA) and to make restitution for disadvantaging white and coloured people.

Section 195(1)(i) of the Constitution makes it very clear that the civil service must, in broad terms, be representative of South Africa’s population. This target has already been achieved and then exceeded.

What the government is doing is in contravention of Section 1(4) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which stipulates that as soon as an affirmative action target has been reached, it must no longer be enforced.

It cannot go on like this. The FF Plus will address a formal letter to the CERD committee and request legal advice. If the CERD agrees with the FF Plus, the party will request that formal action must be taken against the ANC government so that the discrimination can come to an end.

MINISTRY: PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO.: 1501

Adv A de W Alberts (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration:

(1)  What (a) number and (b) percentage of (i) black, (ii) white, (iii) coloured and (iv) Indian persons are employed in the Public Service; 

(2)  has she found that the provisions of affirmative action policies, the Employment Equity Act, Act 55 of 1998, and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, have been met; if not, what is the position in this regard?  NW1641E

REPLY:

(1) As at 30 April 2018, the Public Service consist of 1 139 715 public servants. The Public Service largely mirrors the demographics of the country and consists of an African population of 81.4% (927 446), coloured population of 8.6% (98 333), White population of 7.5% (85 422) and the Asian population of 2.5% (28 514) 

Table 1 Public Servants by race as at 30 April 2018

Data Source: PERSAL, Compiled by the DPSA,

 Excluding: Periodical and Abnormal type of appointments, Defence and State Security Agency and Additional to Establishment

(2) Employment equity targets have successfully been met in terms of race. Number of employees in the Public Service has been fluctuating for the past five years which affects Affirmative Action Policy aggregate in terms of the targets. Employment of persons with disabilities in the public service has been consistently increasing, although not satisfactorily. The 2% equity target in terms of disability has not been reached and is currently standing at 0.95%.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus chairperson and parliamentary spokesperson: Labour, 5 June 2018