chrislbecker.com

Helen Zille writes in the DA’s weekly newsletter this week that:

A great deal has been achieved since 1994.  Racist legislation has been demolished;

Racist legislation, demolished? Let’s see what the Act says. From chapter 3 of the Employment Equity Act [my emphasis]:

a. A designated employer must implement affirmative action measures for designated groups to achieve employment equity.

And chapter 3.2, section 15:

a. Affirmative action measures are measures intended to ensure that suitably qualified employees from designated groups have equal employment opportunity and are equitably represented in all occupational categories and levels of the workforce.

b. Such measures must include:

• preferential treatment and numerical goals to ensure equitable representation. This excludes quotas.

And as the Employment Equity Act, No. 55 of 1998 explains, “designated groups” means black people, women, and people with disabilities.

According to the Act, “black people” is a generic term which means Africans, Coloureds and Indians.

There are no two ways about it: Employment Equity is racist legislation. Whether you believe it will redress injustices of the past sustainably over the long-run or not (which I don’t, but that’s another argument), this is racist legislation (and sexist, and disability-ist).

The only thing that has been “demolished”, is Helen Zille’s statement that racist legislation no longer exists in South Africa.