News24.com | Employment Equity Amendment Act: DA heads to court, says it categorises citizens along racial lines

• The DA will challenge Cyril Ramaphosa's signing of the Employment Equity Amendment Act into law. 
• According to the DA's Michael Cardo, the Act categorises citizens along racial lines. 
• The Presidency announced on Wednesday that Ramaphosa had signed the Act into law. 

A day after the Presidency announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa had signed the Employment Equity Amendment Act into law, the DA revealed that it would be heading to court.  

According to the DA's Michael Cardo, the Act will entrench racial divisions.  

Cardo said: "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 people as has been experienced under the policy of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)."

He added that the DA supported the principle of non-racialism, as underpinned by the Constitution, and rejected the Employment Equity Amendment Act because it would categorise South Africans along race-based lines.  

"The DA believes in creating an open and thriving economy, leading to prosperity for all South Africans. This Act serves only to reinforce the racial categories of the past, rather than promoting much-needed economic growth and job creation," said Cardo.  

As a result, the party said it would be joining trade union Solidarity in challenging the matter in court.

As far back as 2019, Solidarity said it would approach the Labour Court to request that the government implement the recommendation of a report by the SA Human Rights Commission on equality.

The report revealed that some parts of the Act did not comply with the Constitution and international laws.

READ | President Cyril Ramaphosa assents to Employment Equity Amendment Bill

Solidarity, in a media statement, said it was preparing for a huge legal battle. 

It contends that, on 23 August 2022, it had already written to the president, pointing out that the amendments were unconstitutional. 

The union also obtained a legal opinion, and made submissions to this effect to Parliament.

Solidarity's chief executive, Dirk Herman, said:

According to Solidarity, this legislation grants draconian racial powers to the minister.

"The minister can now do central racial planning at his own discretion. This would be the most drastic race-manipulating legislation in the world. It is anticipated that the private sector will have to follow the state's example. Private enterprises will become state-run racial enterprises," Hermann said.

The DA is concerned 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. 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," said Cardo.  

On Wednesday, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed Ramaphosa had signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020, adding that it sought to advance the transformation of South Africa's workforce by setting equity targets for economic sectors and geographical regions, and requiring enterprises to develop transformation plans.

"The Bill amends the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (Act No 55 of 1998) with new measures to promote diversity and equality in the workplace," said Magwenya.

The DA, however, maintained it would instead result in a further exodus of skills from South Africa and introduce large amounts of unnecessary red tape for employers wishing to do business with the state. 

"This will further stagnate the South African economy and a lack of economic opportunity for those who need it most. South African businesses are already struggling with a stagnant economy and crippling load shedding.

"Further race-based meddling by the ANC in the employment composition of private businesses will only result in reduced investment, declining economic growth, and high unemployment across the country," said Cardo.