Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon members, the Employment Equity Act came into effect in 1998. The purpose of the Act was to address the imbalances of the past and to assist people who were put at a disadvantage by laws and past practices: black people and women.
Analysts and statisticians tell us that very little has changed in the workplace. Top positions in the corporate world are still dominated by white males, with a few black males being sought by companies in order to reach their equity targets.
The main reason for this state of affairs is that the Act is generally difficult to enforce. It is generally vague and lends itself to many possible interpretations. The Bill simplifies provisions of the Act by eliminating unnecessary mandatory steps and mandatory criteria that must be taken into account when assessing compliance.
Azapo welcomes the revision of the definition of designated groups to ensure that beneficiaries of affirmative action are limited to persons who were citizens of South Africa before 1994. This will make it impossible for employers to employ foreign nationals who became citizens after 1994 to reach their equity targets.
Azapo also supports the removal of provisions that made it impossible for parties to refer unfair discrimination disputes to the CCMA. It is good that lower-paid employees will be entitled to refer any discrimination claim to the CCMA for arbitration. The provision that such disputes could only be referred to the Labour Court was prohibitive because many workers could not afford the fees that were charged by the attorneys who represented them.
Apartheid in the workplace was based on skin colour. People were not oppressed on the basis of religion, level of education or some sophisticated criterion but were segregated because they were black. There is therefore no way of reversing that legacy except by using race as the criterion. Or are we expected to use shoe size or some such obscure criterion? [Laughter.]
Minister, as before, we are asking again: When is affirmative action going to start? I ask this because it has not started yet. Azapo supports the Employment Equity Amendment Bill.