Coloured workers face the axe - report

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Johannesburg - Nearly a million of all economically active coloured South Africans in the Western Cape will have to earn a living in another province if proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act are implemented, the trade union Solidarity claimed on Sunday.

Solidarity's deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said the amendments could amount to "a massive and unfeasible social engineering programme".

"In terms of the amendment, the act would no longer recognise the economically active population (EAP) of a region, but only the national demographics the economically active population," Hermann said.

According to the Western Cape's current demographics approximately 29.1% of the EAP is black, 54.8% coloured, 0.5% Indian and 15.6% white.

"It would require massive shifts in the population to reflect the national demography," Hermann said.

'Absurd'

"It would mean that the current coloured and white EAP would have to decrease by 80% and 22% respectively, while the black and Indian EAP would have to increase by 154% and 538% to reflect the national EAP demographic profile.

"In Limpopo, an increase of at least 10 000 in economically active coloured persons would be needed, while more than 268 600 economically active black persons would have to move from that province.

Hermann said the "absurd figures" show that in its current form the amendment bill is "unfeasible" and "imposes unrealistic demands".

The findings formed part of a report by the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) on the proposed amendments to labour legislation.

The report indicated what population moves would be required between provinces in order to reflect the national EAP demographic profile in each province.

Hermann said the amendments to the act implied that only the national EAP demographic profile would be used as benchmark for demographic representation to the exclusion of other benchmarks previously in use.

Written out

Current benchmarks include whether a person from the designated groups is available for appointment or promotion, and also take into account current and expected future economical and financial factors for the specific sector.

"What it means in essence is that irrespective of factors such as local demography and skilled employee shortages, an employer will have to comply with the national EAP profile and will not be able to make any appointment that falls outside this," Hermann said.

"The proposals also invalidate the concept of 'black' as defined in the Employment Equity Act. In reality, coloured and Indian South Africans are thus, as it were, written out of the designated group."

Solidarity's legal team had begun to draw up documentation to institute court action should the amendments be passed.

"The principle of representation as it is currently reflected in the proposed amendment bill is not in accordance with the constitution of South Africa and, therefore, it cannot be accepted," Hermann said.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Cape Town - Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel has labelled government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi a racist, comparing him to former president and architect of apartheid, HF Verwoerd.

In a letter published in the Mercury newspaper, Manuel lashed out at Manyi's remarks about an "over-supply" of coloureds" in the Western Cape.

Manyi made the remarks during an interview with Freek Robinson on KykNet last year, while he was president of the Black Management Forum (BMF) and a director-general in the Labour Department.

The ANC distanced itself from the remarks and has apologised on Manyi's behalf.

Here is the full text of the letter:

"Dear Jimmy,

Let us drop titles for the purpose of a necessary exchange. So let us forget for now that I am a cabinet minister and that you are a director-general equivalent, in the same government.

I want to address you simply as a compatriot South African.

I want to draw to your attention the fact that your statements about "an over-concentration of coloureds" are against the letter and spirit of the South African Constitution, as well as being against the values espoused by the Black Management Forum (BMF) since its inception.

That you were a director-general of the Department of Labour, as well as the president of the BMF at the time when you made these statements is quite a mystery.

It is a mystery because I must assume that you were elected as president of the BMF, without any familiarity with the history and constitution of that organisation; and that you were appointed as director-general of the Department of Labour, without any familiarity with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa or the legislation administered by the department.

I observe from a Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) press release, that Mr Vusi Mona issues in his own name, that you apologise for the statement because "some people may have taken offence". This continued negative behaviour merely serves to confirm the values that you hold, or more precisely, lack.

Firstly, why Mr Mona had to issue a statement is beyond comprehension since you distinctly did not utter those racist sentiments as an official of the GCIS.

Secondly, that you lack the moral conviction to publicly apologise says so much about your acute lack of judgement.

Thirdly, that the statement apologises only for the fact that "some people may have taken offence" says to me that you clearly fail to appreciate the extent to which your utterances are both unconstitutional and morally reprehensible.

These "things", (as the ANC statement says, your utterances reduce people to being mere commodities) in your view, "the coloureds who are over-concentrated in the Western Cape", are the sons and daughters of those who waged the first anti-colonial battles against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British when they set foot on our shores.

These "things", which so irritate you, include many who made huge sacrifices in the struggle against apartheid, at a time when people with views like Jimmy Manyi were conspicuous by their absence from the misery of exile, the battles at the barricades and from apartheid's jails. By the way, what did YOU do in the war, Jimmy?

I want to put it to you that these statements would make you a racist in the mould of HF Verwoerd. I want to put it to you that you have the same mind that operated under apartheid, never merely satisfied with inflicting the hurt of forced removals and the group areas act, would encamp language groups so that horrible aberrations, such as Soshanguve, were created to accommodate "non-Tswanas" in their own little encampments in greater Mabopane.

Mr Manyi, you may be black, or perhaps you aren't, because you do not accept that label and would prefer to be "only a Xhosa". Whatever the label you choose, I want to put it to you that your behaviour is of the worst-order racist.

I refer to you in this way because those of us who found our way into the struggle through the Black Consciousness Movement have always understood the origin of the Black Management Forum, as we have understood and supported the ANC documents that speak of "blacks in general, and Africans, in particular". Regrettably, in your understanding the term "black" has quite a different meaning. As a consequence of your behaviour, people like me – in the ANC and in government – are being asked to explain what was in the mind of the drafters of the amendments to the Employment Equity Act.

We were present at the point of the debate of the first Employment Equity Bill; we expressed a complete comfort with the assignment of "designated groups" to include "black people" which means "Africans, Coloureds and Indians" because it served as a representation of our constitutionality and as the fruits of our struggle.

When, in your capacity as chairperson of the Employment Equity Commission, you made strange utterances that sought to carve away the basic premise of the Employment Equity Act, we should have been more vigilant.

The just and constitutionally obligated provisions for redress are not and can never be an excuse to perpetuate racism.

Now, in the light of the utterances you made when you were the DG of the Department of Labour, and given the fact that the amendments to the Employment Equity Act were drafted during your tenure, I have a sense that your racism has infiltrated the highest echelons of government.

Count me among those who, in spite of my position, will ensure that parliament acts in the letter and spirit of our constitution when it adopts amendments to the act.

I have never waged any battle from the premise of an epithet that apartheid sought to attach to me but I will do battle against the harm you seek to inflict. When I do so, it is not as a coloured but as a non-racist determined to ensure that our great movement and our constitution are not diluted through the actions of racists like you.

I have been prepared to sacrifice before for the cause of the kind of society articulated in the Freedom Charter. It is not a cause that has ended. I have simply not been called upon to make the same kind of sacrifices since 1990. I must declare my willingness to make sacrifices now in deference to the opening lines of the Freedom Charter that boldly declare that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it".

I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination.

Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you."