The proposed amended regulations for the Employment Equity Amendment Act, which were published in the Government Gazette, are just an ANC election gimmick.
After 30 years of mismanagement and nothing to boast about to voters, the ANC keeps flogging the dead Apartheid horse in a desperate attempt to keep its election wagon moving forward.
The hackneyed political message sent to voters is that the ANC government will use this law to redress the “injustices of the past” caused by Apartheid.
The same recipe of enforced Affirmative Action (AA) and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), which failed miserably over the past 30 years, will once again be followed.
Even though it has achieved nothing so far, except for destroying the country’s economy and exacerbating inequality, unemployment and poverty.
According to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Thulas Nxesi, the sectoral draft regulations are “five-year targets” and not “quotas”.
In addition, there are only national targets that make no distinction between races while reference is made to “designated groups”, which include blacks, coloureds and Indians.
In the FF Plus’s view, the Minister can call the regulations whatever he wants, they are still essentially quotas. The last 30 years have proven that this recipe will not achieve anything, except for hampering the private sector’s ability to create jobs.
The fact that targets are no longer set for specific groups shows that civil society’s heavy pushback against the Employment Equity Amendment Act did, however, play a role in influencing damaging legislation.
The FF Plus instituted legal steps regarding the Employment Equity Act last year while awaiting the publication of the draft regulations. The party will now consult with its legal team to decide on a way forward.
Given that government’s attempts at redress, through AA and BEE, failed miserably over the past 30 years, it is clear that those policies should have been abolished long ago already.
So far, only the ANC and a small group of political elites with ANC ties have benefited, while the masses have become totally impoverished.
Clearly, the ANC’s political bankruptcy has left it with no other cards to play in an attempt to influence voters.
The Apartheid card and whatever stems from it can hardly still be used to keep a corrupt, failed government in power. With the upcoming general elections, the power to save the country from the ANC lies in voters’ hands.
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