Busa has taken the department of labour to court over employment equity targets.
Business Unity South Africa (Busa) is launching a legal case against the department of employment and labour over the employment equity sector targets which came into effect on 1 September 2025.
Busa said it was not opposing the Employment Equity Amendment Act or the principle of sectoral numerical targets under Section 15A of the law, but cautioned that “transformation must be implemented correctly”.
“In Busa’s view, the current sector targets are fatally flawed both substantively and procedurally. If allowed to stand, they risk undermining the very goal of an inclusive, transformed economy,” the organisation said in a statement.
The Act, which became law in January, sets hiring quotas for 18 economic sectors from mining and transport to construction and agriculture, in a bid to increase employment opportunities for “designated groups” including blacks, women and people living with disabilities.
Furthermore, companies with 50 or more employees must align their employment equity plans with the new sector-specific targets which have to be implemented from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2030.
In April, the Democratic Alliance filed an application in the Pretoria high court challenging the employment equity quotas in the Employment Equity Amendment Act which it says are merely “racial exclusion under a new name”. The employment and labour department rejected these claims, stating that the Act “does not have quotas”.
Busa said its decision to initiate legal proceedings follows unsuccessful meetings — which included formal meetings, data submissions and a detailed presentation to the minister — to raise its concerns surrounding the consultation and methodology processes.
“What took place was not meaningful consultation; it was a presentation. As social partners, we cannot allow performative engagement to substitute for genuine collaboration,” Busa chief executive Khulekani Mathe said.
Employers raised concerns about the department of employment and labour’s draft targets process, which included inadequate consultation and poor transparency, Busa said.
Most were given less than a week to respond, with some receiving draft targets only the night before brief one-hour meetings. They said the department failed to explain the methodology or demographic assumptions used, for example, raising the disability employment target to 3% despite acknowledging the lack of reliable disability data.
Additionally, limited sectoral analysis was conducted to test whether targets were achievable in practice, while inconsistencies with broad-based black economic empowerment sector codes risked creating regulatory confusion.
Employers also criticised the one-size-fits-all approach, arguing that it disregards operational, geographic and structural differences across industries.
The law is one of several pieces of legislation and policies the government has implemented since the fall of apartheid in 1994 in what it says is a drive to reverse the racial inequalities which favoured white people.
“The need for transformation is urgent, but urgency must not become recklessness,” Mathe said in a statement.
“We’re acting now to protect the credibility of equity policy. Unworkable targets do not advance transformation. They deepen frustration and erode trust in public policy.”
The organisation said its legal action comes after several attempts to resolve its concerns with the department “constructively” and was not aimed at opposing transformation or undermining the Act, but that it is mainly concerned with how the targets were developed and imposed.
“Poorly developed targets risk damaging vital sectors of the economy. If targets are unrealistic or not based on the skills available in each sector, companies may find themselves unable to comply,” Mathe said.
“This creates uncertainty and weakens the integrity of the regulatory process, ultimately undermining the transformation and inclusion that the Employment Equity Act is meant to achieve.”