New Race Quotas for Businesses

ACT: 'FINES, STRICT HIRING BASED ON RATIOS UNLAWFUL'

- Jarryd Westerdale

The National Employers' Association of South Africa (Neasa) and Sakeliga are gearing up for a legal battle over the Employment Equity Amendment Act and the regulations, claiming they are unconstitutional, unlawful and harmful.

"The sectoral targets constitute strict hiring quotas, based on race and other demographic ratios, which the state seeks to enforce under penalty of 10% of turnover," the two organisations said of the Act's amendments and regulations, published by the department of employment and labour yesterday.

"The state is acting unconstitutionally, because it makes totalitarian infringements on the freedom of businesses, owners, and employees to freely trade.

"Under the guise of 'transformation', the Act insists on a stifling stagnation – first, all commercial activity and later, by implication, social activity should be conducted strictly in specified racial and demographic ratios.