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President Cyril Ramaphosa receives his Botswana counterpart at his official residence in Pretoria on April 28, 2025.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has given the assurance that the government will continue to correct the imbalances of the past in the workplace.
This follows the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) High Court challenge against the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA).
The DA argues the legislation’s race-based employment quotas could exclude countless South Africans from job opportunities.
Reflecting on the country’s progress in advancing workers’ rights since 1994, Ramaphosa says there are still challenges, including racial inequality in top management, non-compliance and a lack of protection for informal workers.
At a time when our singular focus is on inclusive economic growth and job creation, we must continue to work together to improve the lives of every South African worker. Let us use the hard-won gains of workers to create new opportunities for all. pic.twitter.com/wlg9B88G9l
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) May 5, 2025
Red tape
DA Labour Spokesperson, Michael Bagraim, says increasing red tape for companies to function will lead to job losses.
The Employment and Labour Department has introduced five-year numerical targets for the top four occupational levels.
The aim is to address the skewed employment of juniors to top management positions, as the department’s 2024 Employment Equity report has revealed.
The report found that white workers held 62.1% of all top management positions despite whites only accounting for 7.3% of the country’s population.
DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille is set to brief the media on Monday on the party’s High Court case against the new quotas for employment.
Bagraim says the Western Cape is the perfect example for job creation.
“What we need to do is we need to actually grow the economy, we need to take into account skills, local realities of each province, we need to obviously deregulate as much as possible, you need to get rid of red tape.”
He says,” Every other province has fallen apart because they have looked at making the regulations more harsh and what our government is now doing under (Employment and Labour) Minister (Nomakhosazana) Meth, they are now saying that we’ve got this equity legislation and its failed us horribly, so let’s tighten the bolts.” – Additional reporting by Angelinah Keneilwe
PODCAST: Interview with Bagraim SA fm’s First Take Programme:
