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BL Premium reports that according to Department of Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, drastic action is needed to ensure the transformation of the workplace as white males still occupy top and senior management positions.
At a virtual launch on Friday of the Commission for Employment Equity’s (CEE’s) 2020/2021 report, Nxesi said: “It is clear that we remain a very unequal society in the upper echelons of our economy. This is unacceptable. This report is a wake-up call to [the] government. It’s evident that self-regulation by employers to achieve the objectives of this [employment equity] act has not worked. More aggressive strategies are required to reach its intended purpose, including reviewing the legislation.” The Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020, which is aimed at empowering Nxesi to introduce sector-specific employment equity targets, is before the National Assembly. “If we don’t compel them, they are not going to move. If we come up with this amendment we are talking about, we are going to compel them. We must not be apologetic about that,” the minister said. The report shows that in 2020 whites occupied 64.7% of top management positions, a slight drop from the 65.6% recorded in 2019, while black lagged at 15.8%, up from 15.2% of the previous year, with Indians at 10.6% (10.3% in 2019), and coloureds at 5.7% (5.6% in 2019). White males held most of the top management positions, accounting for 51.6% last year. Senior management positions were also dominated by whites at 52.5%, followed by blacks at 24.7%, Indians 11.6%, coloureds 8% and foreign nationals at 3.1%. Blacks fared the best at middle-management level where they accounted for 46.7% of positions, followed by whites at 32.1%, coloureds at 9.7%, Indians at 9.1% and foreign nationals at 2.4%. Self-regulation by employers has clearly not worked, CEE chair Tabea Kabinde said at the launch. She argued that the amendment bill would be a game changer, as would be the issuing of compliance certificates.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- Read too, Employment equity report shows slow progress of transformation, at Engineering News
- And also, ’50 years to achieve real workplace transformation’, on page 4 of Saturday Star of 26 June 2021
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page