Debate on the MFs Party Motion: Scrapping of Affirmative Action

Madam Speaker the Minority Front thanks this Hon. House for the opportunity to debate this controversial and divisive issue.
In 1998, the affirmative action measures were created to improve the economic situation of the black majority.
On evaluating the impact of these measures on the black African majority, we should consider their effects on our most vulnerable minorities, Indians and Coloureds, who were and are adversely impacted by both the apartheid and democratic regimes.
An underlying justification for measures is workplace diversity, an idea that the workforce should represent the racial and gender makeup of society at large.
The problem that many racial minorities face is that they constitute a small percentage of the overall Economically Active Population (EAP) at the national level, hence feeling deliberately excluded from the economy and wondering whether we are moving to a narrow African, Nationalist approach, something the father of our nation Madiba feared.
Eg: Indians barely comprise three percent (3%) of our total population, will transformation harness their skills?. Their livelihoods are endangered with decreasing quotas.
Vulnerable racial minorities are concerned because the Employment Equity Act imposes equitable representation which logically means regional dynamics, whilst BBBEE regulations require companies to comply with the national EAP. Hence, Indian and Coloured minorities will be geographically disadvantaged when applying because of apartheid group areas.
These are unintended consequences of both policies because they have equitable representation in one legislation but are essentially
banned from management and ownership positions in BBBEE legislation.
The DPSA 2023-2024 APP showed BBBEE compliance by all departments, explaining that Affirmative Action policy is the expansion to BBBEE that has led to uncontrollable corruption
The findings and challenges in the APP are as follows:
– Departments do not implement the AA measures in EE Plan effectively Blurring arises with regulations which are race-based quota implementation but the APP speaks to diversity inclusion, hence the method bottlenecks to track or assess redress in terms of AA for the
“black majority “being Black African, Indian and Coloured. Therefore, reporting must reflect implementation of race targets.
The APP “Results Chain” contains no inputs and activities and DPSA still needs to produce the “Handbook” containing all reviewed (MPSA) determinations and directives to be issued to departments by next year. As key stakeholders, Hon. members, we need this handbook, to see whether there is real return on our investment in transformation programmes.
The organizational functionality Assessment Tool is still being implemented by departments to measure levels of Efficiency and Effectiveness to support service delivery objectives.
- The Job Competency Framework for public service is being developed to be implemented this year, together with an Occupational Dictionary.
- Implementing these monitoring tools will take time, therefore getting a reliable baseline for transformation targets seems a long way ahead. How can we speed up the process?
South Africa has 1,23 million public servants eg: 183774 are from KZN. Hon. members, departments show systemic bias in the recruitment process to support particular outcomes hence there are protracted labour court cases from KZN. Legal costs are a deterrent or we would see more cases. Therefore, the recruitment panels must be made up of people of colour for transparency and faster transformation.
- DPSA Programme 2 is HRM and Development having a sub-programme on Transformation and Workplace Environment
  Management. We need to monitor this at provincial departmental level and call the Transformation officer, as per the 1998 White Paper to our portfolio committee to account on departmental targets.
- Another challenge is the Job Evaluations system where there’s plans to put a system in place by 2023/24. Regular job evaluations are essential; some Hon.members, during committee meetings, complain when senior officials cannot write a report but have a masters or doctorate.
- KZN should demand more assistance from DPSA’s Programme 5: Government services Access and Improvement to capacitate our employees.
  It is a travesty that Public entities and municipalities don’t report to DPSA. Therefore we mustrequest transformation reports in committees for transparency and accountabilityto taxpayers.
- Of concern is that Indicators and Targets are based on non- articulated assumptions by DPSA.
- The law designates a broad group and DPSA reports on the group but on the ground, quotas are regulated by RACE group, then why does the DPSA report not use race indicators and targets for a clearer transformation picture or we will continue to see all government employeesbeing Black African. Where’s the diversity of representation? These are the blind spots and human bias, leading to non-compliance, missed targets because of ideological positions.
It is time our country considers a viable alternative to affirmative action based on socio-economic conditions not necessarily ignoring one’s race entirely. For instance the approach of some of the best Ivy League universities in the United States recently where students may now
be asked to draft adversity statements on how race has impacted their lives. Thisallows universities to holistically evaluate a candidate an individual rather than as avatars for their racial group and the US Supreme Court recently ruled on this.
Madam Speaker, we must take cognizance of the fact that the Employment Equity Act does not have a sunset clause and recent settlement agreement reached between the trade union Solidarity and the government refers to affirmative action as “temporary” in nature. This is vague and not acceptable, requiringamendments to the Employment Equity Act to provide a clear manner in which affirmative action will eventually be phased out. We need a paradigm shift to create a Diversity Inclusion Act. We must move from PDI’s (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals) to EVI’s (Economically Vulnerable Individuals).
The APP risks were as follows:
- bottom up challenges
- mainstreaming Batho Pele in departments
- strained stakeholder relations between departments and unions
- Corruption where there’s lack of capacity to fight
- Policy Implementation needing digitalization with ICT investments and departments that work in silos.
Hon. Speaker, I am sentimentally reminded about the MF motion on AA in 2001, our first party debate. When our late leader, Mr A Rajbansi stated that AA stood for Anti Asiatic; he called for recruitment panels to reflect diversity, so that the process would be transparent with minimal or no unintended consequences.
We talk of window-dressing but both public and private sectors are guilty. It’s time for competency- based recruitments based on DEI
or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as there’s organizational and departmental appetite currently. This has transformative potential.
The MF calls for DEI practitioners to be part of HRM. July ushers in Madiba magic. Madiba once state that “those who ignore ethnicity, do so at their own peril.”
- Diversity is inherently neither good or bad but rather a reality. Hon.members, as lawmakers and shapers we have to constantly update our beliefs and challenge our personal and systems thinking. Therefore, the DEI method calls for advancing sustainable institutions by fostering a culture of inclusion and we must employ these practitioners.
Therefore, the MF recommends the following:
1. The KZN Planning Commission should produce a paper using a Back-casting approach to future studies on sustainable affirmative action programmes (quotas, BBBEE), and provincial development, so that planners, being futuristic, must assess the probable, imagine the possible and decide on the preferable.
2. The 1998 White Paper was drafted with the understanding that AA would be temporary and Section 9(2) of the Constitution needs to be amended with a time limit, to avoid misusing AA for continuous entitlement policies and using national demographics for diminishing minorities. This is why the SMART principle is applied to laws and policy-making because now the 2030 SDG5 goal speaks to Gender Equality and 9(2) is being used to move goal posts, so SA will miss the 2030 targets, like we did the 2015 MDGs.
3. CCMA staff need empowering to resolve disputes. Numeric targets where last set in 2000 and reviewed currently in 2023, to obtain a complete demographic representation. Complainants cannot go to the Public Protector, Gender Commission or the HRC but need to approach the labour court for disputes which is not accessible to the middle class or poor, money being the barrier.
4. Each portfolio committee needs to discuss the department’s AA programme quarterly to feed into DPSA’s quarterly targets.
5. The CFO’s must allocate a budget line-item for transformation initiatives.
6. Every department must appoint a manager for the AA Programme, as per the White Paper (1998). Provinces are supposed to be fined if we miss targets, what happens when we over- accomplish targets? No use fining the private sector if we don’t provide clarity on regulations or achieve our targets.
7. The private sector has valid arguments for confusion and we need to send out AA fieldworkers to assist them because merit is a relevant recruitment criterion for business success.
8. If we discard RACE, only merit is left, translating to fairness. The EEA states that employers use numerical goals and preferential treatment but not quotas or demographic representation, so do these only apply to government jobs and service delivery? Therefore, merit and competency are key to dignified survival for our people now, not political opportunism. We need to invest in basic education and make education free and seamless.
9. The MF welcomes more skills development technikons being built in rural areas, replacing redundant schools. People needs skills not illicit trade in drugs and alcohol.
10. We must craft policies that do not painfully hurt our countries image based on the laws of diminishing returns or irreducibility, hence the DEI methodology is a modernization imperative.
11. We must consider the use of adversity letters for access to government opportunities.
Madam Speaker, the MF proposes that we move from assisting previously disadvantaged individuals (PDI’s) to economically vulnerable individuals (EVI’s). Let us shift from transformation policies which unduly focus an individual’s race to policies which place an individuals socio-economic status as the determining factor in whether or not they receive governmental assistance.
Our government has set out its purpose in the NDP 2030 and we need to harness every citizens capacities and capabilities to move that wheel as enablers of legislation and enforcers of good regulations to create a space for convergence, so that we do not see outcomes as
separate but rather as connected, to a common goal, an Ubuntu inspired road to a prosperous South Africa.
- In “1990” – we needed willpower, now we need “waypower” because “we are after all, our choices”.
Thank you.