OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 8.30PM
A STORMY debate in Parliament over the Employment Equity Bill ended when the Freedom Front walked out of the House on Thursday.
The African National Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party and Pan Africanist Congress all supported the bill, which seeks to promote the position of previously disadvantaged people in the workplace.
However the National Party, Freedom Front and Democratic Party opposed it.
After Labour Minister Shepherd Mdladlana had introduced the second reading debate on the bill, leader of the opposition Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the foundation of South Africa’s new democracy is supposed to be non-racialism. But, he said, the bill re-introduces the concept of legislation based on race and skin colour. This boiled down to “neo-apartheid”, Van Schalkwyk said.
Prince Nhlahla Zulu of the Inkatha Freedom Party said that since most of the amendments it had requested had been adopted, the IFP will support the bill. However the Freedom Front’s Pieter Groenewald said the bill is racist in the sense that it discriminates against Afrikaners because of the colour of their skin. He accused Mdladlana of being a racist for supporting the bill.
After a point of order had been raised by the ANC, chairman of committees Aubrey Mokoena repeatedly asked Groenewald to withdraw the word “racist”. He refused and was ordered out of the House, to applause from ANC members. Shortly afterwards Viljoen led the remaining FF members out.