Solidarity announced on Tuesday that, after 12 years of being excluded for reasons of race from a job, Martin Kroukamp must be officially appointed as a senior magistrate in Alberton.

This came after years of litigation between the trade union and the Department of Justice. Anton van der Bijl, Solidarity’s head of legal matters, commented: “We welcome the Equality Court’s ruling and are delighted by it. The court unequivocally found that the actions of the then Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, amounted to unfair discrimination on the basis of race. It is a shame that for more than a decade Mr Kroukamp had to act in the position he had applied for simply because the department did not want to permanently appoint a while male”. According to the ruling, the Department of Justice must appoint Mr Kroukamp to the position with immediate effect. The department must also carry the costs of the case. According to Solidarity, Kroukamp’s case will pave the way for future litigation over appointments made by government departments. “Although blatant such behaviour by the government is by no means rare. Therefore, we will continue to fight for hundreds of other Kroukamps until the government would finally turn away from its obsession with race above all else,” Van der Bijl noted.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard in Afrikaans at Maroela Media

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