The current law states that both demographics can be taken into consideration.
“If we take national demographics, we are not going to disadvantage the coloured community in the Western Cape because as it stands now, with both national and provincial demographics, coloureds are under-represented in top management.
“We are not looking at unskilled labour. We are looking at the four upper levels (directorships, senior, middle management and qualified skills technical labour).
“When we talk about employment equity and transformation, we look at upper levels, and if companies follow national demographics, this will result in more coloureds in the higher job levels,” Mkalipi said.
Cosatu, has dismissed Solidarity’s statement as “irresponsible propaganda”. Cosatu’s Patrick Craven said: “This scare was started by Solidarity, that small minority union that has not outlived the apartheid past… On the contrary, government agrees that ‘coloured’ workers are under-represented in the implementation of the Employment Equity Act and other legislation, and the proposed amendments are intended to rectify this.”
Cosatu said it was clear that Solidarity was acting “opportunistically … on the eve of the local government elections, to use a ‘swart gevaar’ tactic to instil fear among coloured workers and drive them into the arms of the DA”.