Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said the policy towards implementation of Employment Equity (EE) in the workplace is here to stay, she told a transformation Indaba held in Boksburg, Gauteng today (April 18). “There are those who are calling for a sunset clause on employment equity. But it is hardly soon. To make this call now is mischievous at best or at worst a callous disregard of history and its negative ramifications that will be felt way beyond the two decades of freedom.
Oliphant was speaking ahead of the launch of the 13th Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) Annual Report during the hosting of the Department of Labour’s (DoL) inaugural Employment Equity and Transformation Indaba.
The Indaba’s objective is designed to place back in the radar screen the issue to transformation in the public arena. This, after 15 years since the Department of Labour (DoL) unveiled a policy to advance the promotion of an equitable workplace environment. The Indaba also seeks to stimulate debate on how to fast track transformation and develop strategic partnerships with other government departments, Chapter nine and other stakeholders in the transformation space.
“We have not yet arrived at the proverbial Jordan. Not by a long shot. A lot of work still needs to be done to create equitable and transformed workplaces, which are free from unfair discrimination,” Oliphant said.
The Minister told delegates at the Indaba that at the dawn of democracy, South Africa committed itself to the eradication of social and economic inequalities, especially those that are systemic in nature, “which were generated in our history by colonialism, apartheid and patriarchy, and which brought pain and suffering to the great majority of our people”.
“On the eve of the second decade of democracy, we must be true on the promise we have made to our children and their children’s children to uproot all the effects of apartheid policies. Today there are those who say that the two decades should have been enough to deal with the last vestiges of the abhorrent discriminatory system,” Oliphant reiterated!
Oliphant said South Africa as a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was obliged to comply with International Labour Standards for ratified conventions. This relating to issues of convention that deal with equal remuneration, and elimination of discrimination in the workplace. She said it was the priority of government to deal with the inequalities left behind by the apartheid legacy to bring about socio-economic freedom.
Accordingly, Oliphant said the Employment Equity Act, Skills Development Act, Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA) and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act were some of the legislation enacted to accomplish this task.
“The passing of the Employment Equity Act marked a turning point in our history as it is the first equality legislation to be passed by a democratically elected Parliament in 1998 to give effect to the Constitutional provisions relating to equality in South Africa,” she said.
Many Black people, said Oliphant, are relegated to lower level jobs in the name of lack of skills, whilst there are many graduates from designated groups who are either sitting at home unemployed or under-employed. She said the Indaba was an opportunity and a platform for all to pause and reflect on the transformation journey travelled thus far.
Department of Labour Director-General Nkosinathi Nhleko said although there were different notions over how to effect and what constitutes transformation, “what holds us together is the thirst for transformation”. Nhleko cautioned that black people needed to be freed from the vestiges of poverty, saying that failure to do that would make a mockery of the newly-found democracy.
Minister of Women, Children and People With Disabilities Lulu Xingwana told the Indaba that South Africa was hankering for a society that promotes equality to all its citizens. “No society can claim to be free when large part of its population (women, youth and the disabled) still remain in bondage,” she said .
Xingwana said while significant progress had been made in the public sector to improve the lives of the discriminated, the picture still remains sad in the private sector. “We have a responsibility to ensure all women, youth and the disabled including those in rural areas have access to opportunities”, she said. The Indaba ends tomorrow (Friday, April 19).
