As the year unfolds, both BEE and employment equity are the most contested terrains. Mmanaledi Mataboge took a snap-shot of where political parties stand on two vital and provocative policies
UDM: Be fair to born-frees
Both of these policies [affirmative action and black economic empowerment] are still relevant, as we are still close to our apartheid history and still have the imbalances created by that.
But at the same time it doesn’t mean that we should take another 300 years to address the imbalances. BEE would not have raised eyebrows had it not been for the institutionalised corruption by the ruling party, which has in the name of BEE only deployed members of its own party to benefit.
Both policies have been discredited by the ruling party’s behaviour, which has bred incompetence and put party loyalty above skill or willingness to perform.
When the ruling party took power many people, both black and white, were hastily given packages to make way for deployed cadres. As a result we’ve lost a great deal of experience in the civil service. Fifteen years later we’ve seen the error of that strategy with even the ruling party pleading with skilled former civil servants to return. Getting rid of civil servants just for the sake of Africanising a post and appointing a replacement without making training or merit a priority has had a disastrous effect on service delivery. Affirmative action has to be underpinned by training and skills, or it is an exercise in futility.
The UDM recognises that as a free and democratic society we should bequeath freedom to children born in the 1990s. That means that as a society we should seriously consider whether these children, born in freedom, should be discriminated against on a number of grounds. The new Constitution, born in 1994, is totally against discrimination and we should explore ways of ensuring that we don’t exclude children born into this new dispensation.
We can’t run away from affirmative action, but we must always strive to create opportunities for all South Africans. The objective must be balance and fairness, not reverse racism.
BEE is a good idea in principle, but the ruling party saw in it a way to prop up itself, because we have been told that when ruling party-aligned businesses win state tenders, for example, they pay back 10% to the ruling party — this is corruption of the highest order. — Bantu Holomisa
IFP: Switch focus from rich blacks to poor blacks
The state’s active role in creating a black oligarchy, primarily through the unashamed economic patronage of black economic empowerment (BEE) deals, has further eroded poor South Africans’ confidence in the market economy.
It is the emerging black entrepreneurial classes, those at small and medium enterprise level, which have come into being outside the government drive for a black economic empowerment, that have proved to be most viable. Here, in my opinion, lies a big part of the answer.
And there is no doubt that South Africa’s rigid labour market is impeding accelerated economic growth and job creation. South Africa is faced with a crippling skills shortage and one of the lowest rates of foreign direct investment among emerging economies.
Foreign direct investment plunged 31% between 2001 and 2002. And most alarming for South African workers, entrants to the labour market are growing three times faster than the economy is able to create jobs.
We are, in many ways, experiencing what some economists have described as ”jobless growth”.
In this regard, as contentious as this debate is, we must review affirmative action. Although I believe that affirmative action as a remedy makes sense, its implementation, as it is now, is not fulfilling its original purpose — that of bringing the previously disadvantaged out of poverty.
In practice the policy tends to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (such as black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups or even the same group.
Affirmative action has been applied in countries as diverse as Malaysia, the United States, Sri Lanka and India.
Some figures — and one must treat figures carefully — illustrate that affirmative action has deepened poverty in the US for poor blacks while increasing wealth for rich blacks.
It might appear that affirmative action has created a new form of socioeconomic discrimination in employment and education, where the respective government programmes encourage in favour of middle-class members of the majority group over better qualified but working-class members from the same group because such programmes do not, in essence, consider socioeconomic class.
And then there are the undesired economic side effects. Affirmative action has demonstrably reduced the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best — the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile — thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole.
The widely perceived declining standards in South Africa’s civil service are a foretaste of things to be witnessed in the private sector.
Jobs, jobs and jobs, of course, are the quickest way to empowering the marginalised and the poor. Empowerment criteria such as race, gender and disability should be ”plus” factors, but not the sole considerations, when affirmative action appointments are made or contracts awarded.
Affirmative action legislation should incorporate sunset clauses. Wherever possible, affirmative action should be on a non racial basis.– Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi
ID: Transformation? speed it up
The ID recognises that apartheid divided our nation and institutionalised the economic exclusion of the majority of our people. This legacy did not magically disappear in 1994, neither will it fade away under normal market forces. Instead, government must actively implement interventions.
The DA talks about ”an equal opportunity society”, but there can be no equal opportunity unless we address the structural barriers to the economic inclusion of the majority of black people in the economy.
Affirmative Action
The Commission for Employment Equity Report 2007-2008 showed that, among top management in the private sector in September 2007, whites constituted 68% and Africans only 18%. In senior management, African women reached just 5,5%. Approximately 55% of new appointments were white and only 40% black, with Africans at 28%. Just 37% of promotions were black and 61,4% white.
Special emphasis must be placed on more stringent government intervention and company compliance. Government must engage with business to identify problems and find solutions to speed up transformation.
Black students must actively be head-hunted to be trained in specific fields. We have reached broad public sector representation, but there are tens of thousands of vacant posts in departments crucial to service delivery.
BEE
More emphasis must be placed on broad-based BEE, focusing on interventions such as worker-ownership schemes rather than continuing to make a few rich black individuals even richer. When an individual’s wealth exceeds a certain amount, he/she should no longer qualify for BEE.
Racial discrimination
Through recognition of the past, we will ensure that it does not define our future. The ID encourages particularly whites to do everything in their power to assist with the national project of restoring dignity to the previously oppressed. This involves a daily commitment to the principles of ubuntu and policies that bring about redress.
The ID encourages South Africans to report any incidents of racism, no matter who they are directed at, to the police. — Lance Greyling, chief whip
DA: Review the Scorecard
The DA is fully behind broad-based black economic empowerment. If properly implemented, it will pull people into the economy, reduce unemployment and stimulate growth. But BEE as implemented by the government has become elitist rather than broad-based and has done nothing to improve the chances of millions of still deeply disadvantaged South Africans.
The DA will review the BEE scorecard to ensure that it accurately prioritises the interests of South Africans who have fallen by the wayside, not those who are already reaping the rewards. This review will focus on:
- Placing less emphasis on directorships and more emphasis on training, employment, apprenticeships, learnerships and the creation of firms.
- Ensuring that credits are not obtainable over and over again by the same individuals.
- Ensuring proper compliance to prevent situations that frequently arise in which requirements are ignored to benefit particular individuals.
The DA believes it is important to make South Africa’s workplace more diverse. We support, for example, the favouring of a black, coloured or Indian candidate over a white candidate where candidates are of equal merit.
Affirmative action must never, however, become tokenism and it must not allow people with critical skills to be sidelined. If appointments are made without ensuring that the requirements of the job can be met, the end result for everyone is poorer because productivity and delivery capacity are undermined.
The DA’s priority is to put more disadvantaged South Africans in a position where they are able to benefit from South Africa’s opportunities. This means tackling the poor standard of education in many schools, and a vastly elevated focus on skills development. South Africa must be in a position where all young South Africans are able to compete on an equal basis in the workplace.
Racism remains a disturbing factor of the South African environment. A DA government would not tolerate any abuse of our fellow citizens on the basis of race and we will stamp down hard on racism wherever it occurs.
But the long term solution is to put policies and practices in place that encourage all South Africans to live in harmony with one another. — Paul Boughy, DA spokesperson
Cope: Necessary instruments
Affirmative action and black economic empowerment remain necessary instruments for the transformation of our country. Cope intends strengthening the implementation of the Employment Equity Act (affirmative action) and broad-based BEE.
The state should take the lead in developing procurement policies that encourage the private sector to accelerate the implementation of these policies.
Affirmative Action
- The economy remains predominantly white and the key objectives of affirmative action have not been fully achieved.
- There is a need to address the unintended consequences of affirmative action and related equity policies. These unintended consequences include nepotism and cronyism in the public service, exclusion of minorities from the public service and using race as a sole criterion of employment rather than looking at the potential.
- Equity and efficiency objectives should be pursued as complementary and underpinned by clear and well-managed human capital development strategies. Furthermore, there needs to be appropriate balance between equity policies and strengthening of the fabric of social cohesion. Race-based policies should be sensitive to the emergence and increasing predominance of class tensions that both include and transcend race categories.
- On affirmative action exemptions, certain sectors of the economy that are suffering a crisis of skills shortage – and require rare skills – could receive exemption.
- There needs to be strong monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of affirmative action as well as its impact on the efficiency of the economy, race relations and public service delivery.
BEE
- There is a need to address the unintended consequences of BEE policies.
- Greater emphasis should be placed on grass roots economic development, including increasing support to black-owned SMMEs and those who are in the incipient [informal] economy.
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The review of BEE should lay particular emphasis on other elements of the scorecard, namely the socioeconomic contribution of big business, procurement and enterprise development. The centrepiece should be broad-based participation.
— Palesa Morudu, Cope spokesperson
ACDP: Build the skills
The ACDP would rather use tax incentives that promote business partnerships with SMMEs and labour-intensive industry in preference to the narrow and over-prescriptive affirmative action practices that enrich a few elites. Affirmative action policies, that do not take into account the current skills shortages, are very short-sighted. We feel that the current practice of affirmative action has also been used by the governing party to enrich its own members and is not in any way open and competitive.
The ACDP would promote more educational opportunities and skills development, paid for and practised in industry and business. We would provide subsidies and tax incentives towards that end. In addition it is envisaged that, if business and further education institutions are twinned, skills on graduation would more likely be appropriate to business and industry.
Although many opportunities need to be based on merit, the ACDP would ensure that businesses would not get a tax advantage if the education and skills benefit did not reflect the demographics and history of South Africa. The ACDP would ensure that labour rather than capital-intensive businesses would qualify for tax incentives. For this to work labour legislation would need to be changed. The ACDP believes that these measures would provide more opportunities for the poor and unskilled than affirmative action.
There are still challenges in South Africa when it comes to racial discrimination. Any discrimination based on racial and ethnic differences is against biblical principles. The ACDP would partner civic organisations and the largest sector of civil society in South Africa, which is the church, to educate and promote racial harmony.
There are also geographic separations and we need to find ways to integrate communities. If diverse communities live, shop and go to school together, there is more likelihood of integration. — Jo-Ann Downs, deputy president