DA heads to court to challenge Employment Equity Act

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is heading to court on Tuesday to challenge government’s Employment Equity Act. The party says that the Act seeks to discriminate unfairly and unconstitutionally.

DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille briefed the media in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg on Monday, in regards to the party’s court application that will be heard in the Pretoria High Court.

The court action, which was launched during the 6th parliament over two years ago, will argue that the Employment Equity Act is both unfair and unconstitutional.

Zille says the current Act fails the benchmark test.

She adds that the new employment quotas will cut hundreds of thousands of South Africans out of employment.

“Any discrimination that is deemed to be fair has to be proved to be fair. You can’t just do anything in the name of redress and claim it is fair discrimination. There’s a benchmark that has to be reached to qualify as fair discrimination under Section 9,2. And this Act fails that benchmark test 100%, we believe. And that is the primary argument that we will be making in court,” says Zille.

The DA will also argue that employment equity and cadre deployment, which the party says, subsequently, led to the state capture, cannot be separated.

Zille further slammed the African National Congress (ANC) for not being serious on empowering the marginalised.

“They’ve been serious about putting their cadres into critical positions to capture the state, to turn the state into an instrument of ANC control rather than empowerment and protection of individuals under the Constitution. The two are joined at the hip. They are not different from each other,” she says.

While the DA heads to court to oppose yet another ANC policy, questions have been raised if the latest move will not sour the already strained relations with its Government of National Unity (GNU) partners, especially the ANC. But Zille has made it clear that the DA is not in the GNU to please the ANC or anyone else.

She adds that the DA will remain in the GNU.

“We are going to achieve far more against the Expropriation Act by being inside the Government of National Unity. And we are even going to achieve far more with the BELA Act by having a DA Minister of Education who sets the norms, standards and regulations for the application of BELA. So, obviously, there are many incompatibilities between us and the ANC. But, if we were to go into the Government of National Unity and make our priority to be popular with the ANC, we would end up after the next election with 2% of the vote,” she adds.

While the DA is the applicant in the matter, the Minister of Employment and Labour will be the first respondent, while the Commission for Employment Equity and the Speakers of the National Assembly will be the second and third respondents.

The matter is expected to begin at 10:00 am.