BL Premium reports that Department of Employment & Labour (DEL) Minister Thulas Nxesi said in the National Assembly on Wednesday that companies that failed to comply with the Employment Equity Amendment Act would be barred from doing business with the state.

The Act provides for the setting of numerical targets for different economic sectors. He had been asked what methodology or criteria he would use to determine the numerical targets. Nxesi said sector stakeholder engagements had been concluded and the employment equity numerical targets for each sector would soon be published in the Government Gazette for 30 days for public comment. A number of proposals had been made by stakeholders that were being consolidated. The law would first be applied by using corrective measures, but if there was resistance by companies it would be applied very harshly. “We have to ensure that transformation cannot be frustrated. We are ready to fight this one, we are ready to fight because it will benefit the majority of our people, including those who are unemployed. What we cannot allow is for people to protect the privileges of the past,” Nxesi stated. This was positive discrimination or affirmative action, Nxesi said, but the DA’s Michael Cardo asserted that the numerical targets were a form of job reservation and quota. “This law is a vicious piece of social engineering and gives you [Nxesi] powers incompatible with a free-market economy and will deter investors, strangle growth and kill jobs,” Cardo asserted.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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