Image: DA Eastern Cape Facebook
The Democratic Alliance (DA) held a picket in Gqeberha calling for the amendment of the employment equity legislation as applied in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
The party says the legislation is discriminatory and called on the labour minister to revise the legislation in order to allow the municipality to implement an employment equity policy based on municipal demographics.
DA Provincial Chairperson Yusuf Cassim says with the current legislation reflects the demographics of the province and not the metro.
The office of the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, says it has not seen the petition and cannot answer on it yet, but that the minister will answer questions regarding employment equity during a parliamentary sitting dealing with this issue on Wednesday.
“What we are saying is that employment legislation is not fair because it benefits only a few and marginalizes those that have already been disadvantaged by the apartheid system. We are against something that puts people of any race in the back seat and others above them, which is what we are seeing now. It can’t be that only a certain race benefits from jobs while others have to move to other cities within their own provinces just to get a job. Everyone must get jobs, no matter what race, and we can’t allow anyone to suffer under our watch.”
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