DA challenges new employment equity targets in court, drawing ire from unions

Daily Maverick

01-05-2025

The DA is again at odds with the government — of which it is a member — this time over the new employment equity targets set by the Department of Labour and Employment.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is preparing for a fresh legal battle with the Government of National Unity (GNU), of which it is a member, over the new employment equity targets set by the Employment Equity Amendment Act.
DA MP Michael Bagraim's announcement of the planned legal proceedings comes two weeks after the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) gazetted two sets of employment equity regulations. The party's decision to go to court has been heavily criticised by workers' unions.
The new regulations introduce five-year numerical targets for the top four occupational levels (junior, middle, senior and top management) across 18 sectors, ranging from finance to manufacturing.
The DEL's 2024 employment equity report found that despite comprising just 7.3% of the population, white workers held 62.1% of all top management positions.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Bagraim said the DA had launched a constitutional challenge to section 15A of the amended Act, claiming that it introduced rigid race quotas in the workplace, which would 'destroy jobs, undermine the economy and violate the constitutional rights of all South Africans'.
Bagraim, the DA's spokesperson on employment and labour, added that section15A was an abuse of state power in that the powers it gives Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth were 'vague, unchecked and dangerously broad'.
Daily Maverick previously reported that Nadeem Mahomed, director of employment at the law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said the designated group the Act referred to included black people (Africans, coloured people and Indians), women and persons with disabilities, provided they are South African citizens by birth or descent.
However, Bagraim claimed that the final quotas would make it 'virtually impossible' for coloured people in the Western Cape and Indian workers in KwaZulu-Natal to find or keep employment.
The DA also claims:
Section 15A violates section 9 of the Constitution by enabling discrimination based on race.
The minister's discretion under Section 15A lacks clear legal standards, contravening the Dawood principle of administrative law.
The implementation of demographic targets disproportionately prejudices coloured and Indian communities in certain provinces, particularly the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Exemptions for small businesses and the government's settlement in the Solidarity case suggest an acknowledgement of the potential economic harm of the quotas.
Read the DA's founding affidavit here.
'This case is not about resisting redress. It is about protecting people's rights under the Constitution, the rule of law, and the livelihoods of South Africans.
'The DA believes that real redress does not mean implementing policies that bring more division. We believe that true transformation can only be achieved by focusing on inclusive economic growth that creates opportunity for all,' said Bagraim.
In response to questions sent by Daily Maverick, DEL chief communications officer Teboho Thejane said: 'Let's let the legal process unfold. Citizens have the constitutional right to address issues in the way they see appropriate. The department follows relevant processes when it comes to legislative framework within its scope.'
Several workers' unions had stronger words about the DA's legal challenge.
'Spurious attack'
On Tuesday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) released a strongly worded statement expressing its 'dismay' at the DA's 'spurious attack on employment equity.
'It is alarming that the DA court papers are premised upon fake news about the Act and its regulations. Nowhere in either does it provide for any worker, of any colour or gender, to lose their job. None. Any statement claiming they do should be taken as seriously as the flat-earth hysteria on social media.
'Employment equity and transformation remains an extremely emotive matter for all workers and should be handled with the necessary care and sensitivity and not used to score likes on social media,' said Cosatu parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks.
Parks said the amendments to the Act sought to strike a fair balance between easing administrative burdens on SMMEs reflecting SA's demographic diversity and pushing employers to do better to ensure all employees had a 'fair chance to fulfil their full potential'.
'The regulations provide ample time, eg, five years, and modest targets, well below population demographics, for employers to work towards. As with all laws, exemptions are provided for employers who have tried, but, for a variety of reasons, cannot achieve their targets,' said Parks.
He added that the union was confident that the case would be dismissed as 'legal adventurism'.
General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) said the union strongly condemned the DA's litigation.
'Ultimately, it reflects the commitment within the DA to roll back the progress made with respect to transformation, and it also reveals the character of the DA. The fact that the DA is not concerned with the dominance of white people in the top echelons of the corporate ladder in many sectors of the industry of this country says a lot,' said Giwusa's Mametlwe Sebei.
Sebei said that employment equity had been instrumental in ensuring that all levels in organisations were reflective of SA's diverse demography. However, he noted that there was resistance, particularly in the private sector, where operational and top management were predominantly white.
'That is the reason that it is absolute hogwash for the DA to keep insisting that economic growth and the opening of education opportunities, all of which are important, on and by themselves would address this issue. If that were so, we would not have had the lack of representation and exclusion of black people from the management of industry and public service,' added Sebei.