Have South African employment equity measures failed?

The first two decades of post-apartheid South Africa have been times of intense change at all levels of society. A key aspect of this change is economic empowerment: creating space in senior positions in tertiary, corporate and professional organisations for previously marginalised people.

Progress in this regard has been monitored annually by the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), among other bodies. According to its most recent report, released in early August 2011, there has been very “minimal improvement for black and female employees, particularly in penetrating top and senior management level positions.”

It has been 13 years since the Employment Equity Act was ratified and adopted into legislation.

While presenting the “11th CEE Annual Report 2010–2011” to parliament, Minister of Labour Mildred Oliphant reflected that “despite significant progress made in penetrating the job market by both black people and women at professionally qualified levels, this group seems to have reached a
glass ceiling.”

While there has been a slight increase in the numbers of professionally qualified blacks and women, top and senior management positions are still dominated by white males. Recruitment, promotion and skills development trends do not demonstrate sufficient change to result in higher levels of transformation at upper management levels in South African corporations.

Asked whether the Employment Equity Act had achieved much since its enactment, Thembinkosi Mkalipi, the Labour department’s chief director for labour relations, would only confirm that there had been a great improvement in the representation of black people, particularly Africans, in middle management as well as skilled technical and junior management levels. In 2010, African representation at these levels rose by 10.8% (from 20.2% in 2006 to 31.0% in 2010) and 11.8% (from 39.2% in 2006 to 51.0% in 2010) respectively.

He described this as a positive sign that more black people, particularly Africans, are becoming qualified as professionals in various occupations, while acquiring more technical skills.“It is promising to see that there is a growing pool of suitably qualified black people whom employers can recruit or promote to senior and top management positions, where black people, in particular Africans, are grossly under-represented.”

In fact, the Labour department asserts, the 11.8% increase in African representation at the “skilled technical” level is due to the increase of African female representation at this level, which is another great achievement.

Chief executive officer of Cape Town-based Accelerate Cape Town, Guy Lundy – a keen observer and commentator on business trends in South Africa – prefers to focus attention on the positive side of things: “When assessing progress in employment equity achievements, we have to look at the totality of factors that contribute to success or failure,” he argues. “We also have to note and acknowledge the many efforts undertaken by individual businesses in this regard, in order to create conditions for the advancement of black people. Companies such as Engen, KPMG and many others have made commendable progress in establishing internal processes for the advancement of senior black professionals to decision-making levels but, sadly, their efforts tend to be overlooked.

“We also have to look at the role played by the poor quality of education starting from primary, even pre-primary, levels and subsequent education phases up to tertiary level,” he insists. According to him, if we do not get education right, we shall reap the consequences later in life, when people try to integrate various professions.

Lundy further argues that it does not help to have the government and business camping on opposite sides of the debate, with each claiming to be right and the other wrong. “I believe that there is corporate desire, as opposed to corporate will, to help create a bigger pool of black professionals to recruit from. However, corporate desire is passive, with companies believing that it is the job of the government to educate people; while corporate will is more active, with companies taking some of the responsibility in their own hands.”

He says there is a need to build trust between the government and business camps: “Both sides display a typically South African attitude of mutual antagonistism and seem unable to listen to an opposing viewpoint. More collaboration between the two sides should result in more efficient use of available resources for training and other forms of skills development.

“Furthermore”, Lundy continues, “the issue of cultural differences is often underestimated. All South Africans need to be taught to be willing to work outside of their cultural comfort zones. No single corporate culture should dominate and try to bulldoze the others in any corporate setting. It has to be admitted that the success of corporate integration of newly recruited black professionals depends on being aware of and open to cultural differences – something that is not the case in many companies.

“But, importantly, we need to give credit where credit is due and recognise those companies that have made great strides in implementing employment equity, rather than punishing all of them with the same whip.”

Seeing through it all

“Things are not as rosy as all of that if you look at the progress we have made to date,” responds Stellenbosch-based Dr Mvula Yoyo, employment equity practitioner at Mediclinic Southern Africa.

“The third Commission for Employment Equity report reflects the situation on the ground. Not enough has been done by business to bring about real change through employment equity. It seems to me that many businesses do not realise that it is not enough to simply bring black professionals into their companies.”

According to him, having recruited skilled black professionals is only the first step to successful transformation. The next step should be to create measures that make black professionals feel welcome and properly integrated into the company. This, Dr Yoyo argues, is not a demand for special treatment for blacks, but an effort to raise awareness of the possible impact of an unchanged corporate culture on new recruits.

While apartheid-era corporate culture had a clearly Eurocentric bias, post-apartheid corporations in South Africa have to consider a more multicultural environment aimed at making all employees welcome, irrespective of their cultural background.

“Language use, for instance, has reportedly driven black professionals away from companies, especially in the Western Cape, where business meetings and internal communiqués are sometimes carried out in Afrikaans – a language that, clearly, many black professionals do not speak,” argues Dr Yoyo. According to him, insensitivity to such concerns does not help companies effectively implement employment equity measures.

But he acknowledges that South Africa’s education system has still not fully recovered from apartheid-era fragmentation, particularly as far as quality is concerned. “Most blacks do not start their education in the best-equipped preschool and primary school environments,” he explains. “Throughout their school-going years, they have to make do with ill-equipped libraries and laboratories; and some of the teachers are either badly trained or lack motivation. All these factors have to be attended to in order to ensure the right skills are taught as early as possible; and that young tertiary graduates assume professional responsibilities, having been well prepared for them throughout their schooling.”

Dr Yoyo acknowledges there are some shining stars out there, in terms of companies trying to do the right thing, but that these are still the exception rather than the rule.

Companies that make an effort to implement employment equity measures should be recognised and encouraged – even incentivised – to do more.

“I do not think that adopting the punitive approach, as recommended by the proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act, would be the right way to go because we will end up with companies just aiming for numbers instead of quality. This will result in the wrong people being employed, making a joke of employment equity efforts,” Dr Yoyo cautions.

He proposes that companies set employment equity targets and that managers keep themselves informed of the company’s black economic empowerment status. This, he argues, could be part of the line managers’ key performance indicators which, if not achieved, would negatively affect their performance appraisal.

Setting employment equity targets as part of a management incentive scheme would have positive spin-offs, as managers would be more proactive in putting systems in place to reach their targets. When external legislation threatens companies with punitive measures, the managers may believe it does not concern them directly, and that only the company would be penalised.

Studies have shown that while in many instances companies have embraced employment equity on paper, line managers are ultimately responsible for making it work – both in terms of recruitment and in effecting promotions, as well as in ensuring an environment in which all employees feel welcome to work for the company.

Mkalipi agrees with Dr Yoyo’s assessment that there has been some progress over the years, but supports the proposed harsh penalties on defaulters. “If companies do not comply with the provisions of the Employment Equity Act, they should be fined harshly. These fines should comprise a percentage of the company’s turnover, instead of the fixed actual amount regulated in the act. Enforcement mechanisms should also be simplified in order to enable a quick prosecution of defaulters of the law and, as a result, expedite the implementation of the act,” he argues.

“The captains of industry should start taking employment equity more seriously. Companies must have clear succession plans that take advantage of the growing numbers of black professionals, and integrate them into their structures. They should accord equal recruitment and training opportunities to all designated groups, including people with disabilities, and not limit themselves to promoting white females and Indians to senior positions. This is something that, when one looks at the numbers alone, seems to be a growing practice out there.”

The Department of Labour contends that employers should no longer use the old excuse that there is a dire shortage of black professionals, as more recent statistics have shown that their numbers have grown steadily in recent years.

There are many unemployed black professionals, in particular Africans and coloureds, who are not benefiting from on-the-job training opportunities or gaining experience in the formal sector.

“The captains of industry must start walking the talk in relation to transformation,” argues Mkalipi. “We want to see them commit to the transformation of their companies’ top and senior management levels, through the development of concrete succession plans. Private business should invest more in developing skills and start seeing transformation as an integral part of sustaining business, not simply as an uncomfortable obligation,” he concluded.

It is clear from the arguments advanced in this article that much still needs to be done to showcase those black professionals who have successfully integrated at the senior and top management levels of South African corporations.

The quality of the education a person receives plays a crucial role in determining the success of their professional integration at a later stage in life.

Furthermore, the result of many decades of domination by one culture in corporate South Africa is still felt today.

Lundy and Dr Yoyo made a good point in singling out corporate culture and the need to look at the totality of factors, including language use, that stand in the way of successful implementation of the Employment Equity Act in corporate South Africa.

A very important aspect of employment equity, however, is paying the same salaries for the same jobs – regardless of race
or gender.

Solly Moeng

• |2012-01-30 14:00:01 Ponatshego Mittah Modise  - Mrs
  As a person you need to start somewhere in life, My work experience i have worked as Markert Researcher(2years) ,i have 4 Months work experience in Managing Census Project as Fieldwork Coordinator
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