Black people and women are just as capable of excelling at mathematics or science as men and whites, said Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Friday.
”I would even guess that in most instances top students in mathematics or science are girls … then the poor representation of blacks and women in key positions in the economy can surely not be as a result of nature, but a consequence of what our Constitution refers to as ‘the injustices of the past’,” he told pupils at Somerset College in the Western Cape during the annual David Wynne lecture.
Quoting statistics from the directors of the top 100 companies in South Africa, Manuel said there are 2 489 directors, of whom 202 are women — 105 white women and 97 black women.
Of the remaining 2 287 directors, 351 are black men. Of the 384 companies listed on the JSE, only 1% have women CEOs.
The same holds true for professions such as chartered accountants. Of a total of 25 346, only 5 827 (23%) are women. Of this number, 4 826, or 83%, are white women. Of the remaining 19 519 male chartered accountants, 17 600, or 90%, are white men.
Manuel said 12 years after the establishment of democracy, the picture is not pretty.
In an attempt to correct these imbalances, the government has implemented the Employment Equity Act and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.
Work also has to be done in sports to ensure greater representivity of different races in the national teams, to ensure that South Africans support them, Manuel said.
”I want to assure all of you that contrary to what you may hear occasionally, this is not apartheid in reverse.
”If you commit to a better future for all citizens of our country, you will assist us [the government] in addressing these very difficult matters. We have no room for failure,” he told the pupils. — Sapa