Employment equity quotas as numbers only struck down….

On equity quotas, the Employment Equity Act, as anchor legislation, and thus the recently approved Employment Equity Amendment Bill, has come under query as a result of a recent case heard in the Supreme Court which has found the Act is in default where numerical formulas only are applied to racial quotas in order to comply with regulations.

In fact numerical quotas are illegal, said the Court. In dealing with case before it, the Court found that this had been applied, the appellant failing to achieve an appointment based the fact that racial quota targets had been applied in terms of black empowerment legislation.  The defendant was the minister of police.

The court further found the Act in contradiction of itself by being unfair if it regulated itself to achieve employment equity with just numbers, as distinct from “preferential treatment and numerical goals” being applied, as has been applied in government circles elsewhere.

A whole host of applications applied by many government departments would therefore seem to be in contravention of the Act, since many departments rigidly use number quotas to achieve equity targets across a wide range of the public service.