Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi on Friday said he was disappointed with the pace of transformation in the country and it was nothing to boast about.
His comments came after the Commission for Employment Equity - which provides the status of employment equity (EE) in the labour market as reported by designated employers in the 2022 circle - handed its report to Nxesi.
The Employment Equity 23rd CEE annual report was launched and given to Nxesi on Friday in Kempton Park.
The report found that the white population held the most managerial positions in the country and that women continued to be the lowest-ranked group.
The report said from top management, whites accounted for 62.9%, followed by Africans at 16.9%, Indians at 11.2%, coloureds at 6.1%, and foreign nationals at 3%.
“This is although Africans constitute 80% of the national economically active population (NEAP), followed by coloureds at 9.3%, whites at 8%, and lastly, Indians at 2.7%,” it said.
The report revealed that senior management reflected 50.1% whites, 26.1% Africans, 12.3% Indians, and 8.2 coloureds.
The gender breakdown showed a 62.8% representation of males compared to 37.2% of women. In terms of professionally qualified roles, Africans accounted for 48.4%, whites 30%, coloureds 9.9%, Indians 9.3%, and the remaining percentage was shared by foreigners.
Nxesi said he was perplexed at how politicians commenting on the report were using it as a negative propaganda tool.
“I am perturbed by the way some politicians have maliciously racialised the whole concept of employment equity to divide the population. I also want to dispel false claims that South Africa stands to lose thousands of jobs from coloureds and Indians as they get dismissed to make way for employers to achieve targets. The law will not allow that to happen. These scare tactics and bizarre claims by politicians should be seen for what they are,” Nxesi said.
Global Business Solutions joint CEO Thembi Chagonda said this year's report revealed a continued pattern of slow progress in achieving employment equity goals over the past two decades.
"The representation of certain racial groups, particularly in top and senior management positions, remains disproportionate, highlighting the need for targeted interventions," she said.
Chagonda said she encouraged employers to establish an up-to-date workforce profile at the workplace, select the appropriate Employment Equity Plan (EAP) that aligned with their organisations’ operations, choose the relevant sector with corresponding sector targets, and utilise the EAP and Sector Targets as benchmarks to identify under-representation and set annual numerical targets.
"Employers whose current workforce profiles exceed the 5-Year Sector Targets should set annual targets to align with their respective EAPs," she said.
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu’s) parliamentary co-ordinator, Matthew Parks, said it was embarrassing that some companies were simply choosing to ignore the equity target, just simply choosing to undermine it.
“About two weeks ago when it was announced that a woman has been appointed to be the first CEO of an insurance company, (it was seen) as a good thing. You shouldn't be celebrating that 29 years in its market, it shouldn't be a major achievement for a woman to be a CEO of an insurance company and we have universities producing economics graduates every year in the thousands," he said.
He said this was a reminder that while there was progress there still were inequalities.
“There is progress, but it is not good enough. Twenty-nine years down the road you have all the banking CEOs who are men, and almost all of them are white men," Parks said.
Parks said, similarly, in the mining sector, almost all the CEOs were white men and of course, if one went to the ground, security guards and cleaners were black women and black men.
“We just have to keep pushing on it. We know it's a sensitive issue for African workers who feel frustrated with not making progress 29 years into democracy. It's frustrating for coloured workers, often confined to menial jobs," he said.
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