The Black Business Council (BBC) has condemned trade union Solidarity for encouraging white-owned businesses to defy government’s approved policy on black economic empowerment (BEE). On Thursday, Solidarity wrote letters to at least 2 000 major white-owned companies asking the businesses to protest against government’s latest “race laws”. In a letter which we have seen, the […]
Being absurdly impractical, it is unfeasible for businesses to comply with the equity act This is a story about a failing state in its last throes of insanity, desperate to get away with a totalitarianism so absurd that it unwittingly sets the scene for a new and better order. On the face of it, the […]
Dismissal for the purpose of meeting the regulations’ numerical goals would violate the Labour Relations Act The publication of the employment equity (EE) regulations last month has caused much controversy. While a vibrant contestation of ideas is the lifeblood of a healthy constitutional democracy, public discourse must always adhere to the factual and legal reality […]
Some businesses in South Africa are coming together to discuss and workshop a way to navigate the country’s new black economic empowerment laws and proposed racial targets for various sectors. Trade union Solidarity – vehemently opposed to the new laws and is exploring legal avenues to challenge them – is spearheading an initiative to draw […]
The new EE regime is absurd and impracticable Envision the SA labour market as a timepiece, a complex blend of gears and springs, each playing a crucial role in maintaining the harmony of the ensemble. To function smoothly there needs to be a seamless integration of disparate elements and the deft touch of an invisible […]
The draft employment equity regulations may well be an ‘incoherent mess’, as described by Prof Pierre de Vos, but their implementation will have serious and far-reaching implications for South Africa. Professor Pierre de Vos, head of the Department of Public Law at UCT, wrote about the new version of the Employment Equity Act (EEA), and […]
South Africa is astonishingly creative at fashioning its own political, social and economic demise. Most similarly sized “emerging” economies facilitate their own respective Götterdämmerungs in far more facile ways. Installing some pliant sycophant in the central bank who promptly debases the currency and creates tearaway inflation is a tried and trusted strategy. Alternatively, a coup d’état by […]
A battle is brewing between the construction industry and the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) over recently published regulations under the Employment Equity Amendment Act. The regulations, published earlier this month despite a lack of consensus between construction industry associations, contain some controversial provisions. These include: The imposition of employment equity targets on various sectors of […]
They will escalate racial tensions and unemployment, and lead to a flight of skills The recently published draft Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEA) regulations banning the employment of coloured and Indian South Africans in certain economic sectors and provinces are unacceptable (“The ideology that spawns SOE graft also foils literacy”, May 22). The EEA will […]
Minister of Employment and Labour – Thulas Nxesi, briefing the media following the Auditor General’s report on UIF Covid-19 TERs benefit, 2 September 2020Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi says the government is open to engagements on the amended Employment Equity Act. Nxesi has described the criticisms of the amendment as opportunistic, political and fear-mongering. […]