Big business takes legal action over Employment Equity sector targets

BUSINESS Unity South Africa (Busa) has filed legal proceedings against the recently published Employment Equity (EE) Sector Targets, which officially came into effect on 1 September 2025.

- SIPHELELE DLUDLA

THE EE Regulations are designed to promote equitable representation across all sectors of the economy and apply to all companies with more than 50 employees. | LEON LESTRADE Independent Newspapers

(LEON LESTRADE Independent Newspapers)

The EE Regulations are designed to promote equitable representation across all sectors of the economy and apply to all companies with more than 50 employees, setting targets across skilled, professional, and management levels over the next five years.

The country’s largest organised business body on Monday stressed that its challenge is not aimed at opposing the Employment Equity Amendment Act or the principle of sectoral numerical targets under Section 15A of the Act, but rather the way in which the current targets were developed and imposed.

BUSA CEO Khulekani Mathe said the organisation has engaged with the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) for years on workplace transformation.

However, he argued that the consultation process that led to the new sector targets was inadequate and procedurally flawed.

“What took place was not meaningful consultation; it was a presentation,” Mathe said. “As social partners, we cannot allow performative engagement to substitute for genuine collaboration.”

Among the key issues Busa highlighted were limited consultation time, opaque methodology, insufficient sectoral analysis, conflicting compliance frameworks, and a one-size-fits-all approach.