The DA has taken the Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth, to the Pretoria High Court to challenge the Employment Equity Amendment Act.
Helen Zille, the chairperson of the DA federal council, argued that the “job race quotas” go against the goals of redress and transformation, claiming that this will increase unemployment.
Zille explained that the DA’s argument is based on Sections 9 and 9.2 of the constitution, especially parts that deal with equality and correcting past injustices.
She said the equality section bans discrimination on many grounds, and while the redress section allows some fair discrimination to fix past wrongs, it should not be used in a harsh or one-size-fits-all way.
Fair access to jobs
“Any discrimination that is deemed to be fair has to be proved to be fair; you cannot just do anything in the name of redress and claim it is fair discrimination,” she said.
“There is a benchmark that has to be reached to qualify as fair discrimination under Section 9.2, and this act fails that benchmark test 100%. That is the primary constitutional argument that we will be making in court.”
She said the DA is fighting for fair access to jobs, raising concerns that every citizen deserves a chance to use their skills and talents to access opportunities.
“We have done many surveys of potential investors who decide not to invest or who disinvest in South Africa, and they name electricity uncertainty and race laws as the primary factor that drives away investment,” she said.
She acknowledged that the goals of the legislation may not match its outcomes and that they should be judged realistically and by the impact they have on people.
Job creation is important form of redress
Zille also said it was not effective to tighten a system that had already caused harm. Instead, she called for new strategies to help marginalised people join a more inclusive economy.
“The DA is absolutely committed to achieving that. We want employment to reach levels of highly developed, functioning, booming economies, and we can do that with the right policy regime, and that would be real inclusion, real redress, and real transformation.
“Continuing a failed system and taking precisely the elements that made it fail and making them worse is, in fact, doing the opposite of transformation, redress, and inclusion — and that is our main problem with this Act,” Zille added.
She said this new regime allows the minister to set targets for any sector, which, as compared to the previous regime, is not sustainable.
“The most important form of redress is to get people into jobs. The more you get people into jobs, the more they are included in the economy, the more dignity they have, and the more inequality comes down.
“Getting a job is the best way to fight crime; it is the best way to give people dignity and a future. The best way to get jobs is to get a government that creates policies that encourage investment and doesn’t punish investors and sets all kinds of barriers to investments,” said Zille.
