Tebogo Msimanga |
The Democratic Alliance says it is dismayed that President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Act. This follows the DA urging the President to not sign the Bill in an open letter issued last year.
The Act will confer on the Minister wide-ranging powers to set numerical race-based employment targets across varying sectors and regions. The Act will further require employers to secure compliance certificates issued by the Minister, in order to do business with the state.
DA Shadow Minister for Employment and Labour Dr Michael Cardo reiterated that the DA will now be joining the legal action being undertaken by Solidarity to stop this “draconian race-based Act in court”.
“This will increase inefficiency and add further unnecessary red-tape when conducting business in South Africa. Government should not be getting in the way of business given the 32.7% unemployment rate experienced in the final quarter of 2022”.
Cardo added that the Employment Equity Act will not bring about the transformation of the workplace it purports to seek. “Instead, it will further impoverish the vast majority of South Africans, while enriching a thin sliver of politically connected individuals as has been experienced under the policy of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)”.
