The new year would see “an even more” intensified fight against employment-equity violators, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Monday.
He was addressing the launch of a new multimillion-rand computer literacy skills centre for people with disabilities in Richards Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Mdladlana said the department’s investigation of such companies — which led to much controversy this year — was just the beginning. “The issue of employment-equity violation is going to be my project next year,” he said in a speech reported by his ministry.
“Employment equity reports indicate that [in] eleven years since our democracy, we have not moved much in the higher echelons of industry in terms of race and gender, while skills development reports indicate that only 2% of people with disabilities are participating in our programmes despite the new incentives that we have introduced.
“These are the kinds of things that make people uncomfortable,” he said.
The input of workers and the current labour legislation are the primary reasons the country’s economy is doing so well, he argued. — I-Net Bridge