Affirmative action is dead in many respects, says Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin.
Beeld newspaper reported him on Friday as saying the policy was not being applied in South Africa because of skills shortages.
Erwin was defending the government’s affirmative action policy on Thursday during a question-and-answer session at the South African Business Club in London.
Asked about the importance of the policy to the government, Erwin said affirmative action was in many respects dead, ”not as a policy, but as a prerequisite” [during job applications].
Citing medical appointments in the Western Cape, he said most doctors appointed there were white.
Erwin contended there would have been an even greater shortage of skills in South Africa if it were not for affirmative action.
”The number of skills needed in South Africa cannot possibly be supplied only by white South Africans.”
Erwin revealed that former British prime minister Tony Blair conveyed his discomfort with the affirmative action policy to then deputy president Thabo Mbeki in 1999.
Blair’s former spokesperson and spin doctor Alastair Campbell wrote in his diary, published this week in London, about a private meeting between Blair and Mbeki in 1999.
Campbell said Blair told Mbeki that the African National Congress government was ”too attached to the policy of affirmative action”.
According to Campbell, Blair wanted an assurance from Mbeki that ”black South Africans would not get rich through making white South Africans poor”.
Erwin said South Africa had done everything in its power over the past years to lure engineers back from abroad.
”We have apparently brought back as many of the skills as we can. There may be more out there, but we are looking for them.”
Although many engineers returned, it had become more difficult to attract them due to the huge salaries that they earn abroad.
Erwin said the situation was made worse because only half of the engineers trained in South Africa eventually worked as engineers. The other half worked in other industries and professions.
Moves were under way to work with engineering firms to ensure that engineering students remained in their field, Beeld reported.
In March this year, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said affirmative action policies would never be ruled out in South Africa.
”Contrary to Parliamentary calls by the opposition Democratic Alliance, affirmative action and current employment equity legislation will never be repealed but will be intensified instead,” Mdladlana said. — Sapa