Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has ruled out the removal of race from labour legislation or limiting the categories to black and white for now, saying the country’s Constitution and the Employment Equity Act were yet to be amended.
Nxesi said this when responding to Ala-Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks’ written parliamentary question.
His informal chat with Nxesi on race in the corridors of Parliament led him to put the question in writing, knowing that ministers take a long time to arrange for appointments, Hendricks told the “Cape Times.”
In his written question, he asked: “When will the requirement to state one’s race be removed from labour legislation and, where necessary, be limited to black and white only instead of stating ‘coloured’ and ‘Indian’?”
While Nxesi did not give a specific response, he was vocal about past injustices and inequalities.
He said race had been a key determining factor in how resources and opportunities were distributed to the citizens in the past.
Nxesi said the Constitution was explicit that measures must be taken by enacting legislation to ensure that no person was directly or indirectly unfairly discriminated against based on any of the prohibited grounds, including race.
“It is against this backdrop of Section 9 of the Constitution, the ‘equality clause’, that various legislation, in particular the Employment Equity Act, 1998 (EEA) was enacted. The primary purpose of the EEA is to promote equity through the elimination of unfair treatment and unfair discrimination in employment policies and practices, and the implementation of affirmative action measures to redress the imbalance of the past suffered by the previously disadvantaged groups - that is black people, women of all racial groups, and persons with disabilities irrespective of their race and gender,” he said.
Nxesi said the Employment Equity Act defined black people as a generic term that referred to Africans, coloureds and Indians.
“It is important to highlight that this definition, and Section 6(1) of the EEA, which lists all the prohibited grounds of unfair discrimination, inclusive of race, has not been amended.”
He also said the listed prohibited grounds of unfair discrimination in the Employment Equity Act mirrored those listed in the Constitution.
“In context of the objectives of both Section 9 and that of the EEA, if ‘race’ as a classification should be removed as a prohibited ground for unfair discrimination, amendments should be considered not only for the EEA, but for the Constitution, including other legislations that make reference to the race classifications,” he said.
In an interview, Hendricks said what was non-negotiable to Al-Jama-ah’s position was that race classification was breaking up the black constituency into Africans, Indians and coloureds.
“Our position, and if it is necessary to make an amendment, I will submit a private member’s bill and start changing the legislation if that is required,” he said.
Hendricks said in order to address the imbalances of the past, there should be no discrimination among blacks wherein there were Indians and coloureds.
“We feel that it is important and this will be in our manifesto promise. South Africa should have blacks and whites while we aspire to be a human race.We should not give advantage to Africans.
They (blacks, inclusive of Africans, Indians and coloureds) should be treated as one group,” Hendricks said.
Glen Snyman, founder and leader of People Against Race Classification (Parc), said: “The minister does not answer the question. He should say ‘when’ will be the end of this. What we as Parc say is, end these discriminatory laws immediately! It’s long overdue.
“It is a job reservation for ‘black’ people only, but the current legislation discriminates against a new generation of children that was born many years after apartheid.”
Policy analyst Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said for a democracy to work in redressing the injustices of the past and improving the quality of life of all citizens, people could not just be exposed to racial neutral information that was presented to them as correct.
“They need to know about and be involved in targeted measures to promote racial equality and human dignity in the workplace and see how such policies or facts relate positively to their lives,” Nyembezi said.
“A little under 30 years of our democracy, we should mark our calendars and remember that race classification in labour laws is some gesture that is necessary but never sufficient.
“By all means, keep race classification in labour laws for as long as it is necessary, but think of the classification, as the drafters of the Constitution desired, as temporary markers of wins in a game where the ultimate goal is to beat racial inequality and human indignity,” Nyembezi said.
Cape Times