The Democratic Alliance (DA) took to the streets of Cape Town on Wednesday and marched to Parliament against what it has termed “race quotas” in the government’s Employment Equity Amendment Bill.

In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the bill, which has new measures to promote diversity and equality in the workplace into law. The resultant Act paves the way for the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) Minister to, among others, identify and set employment equity numerical targets for each economic sector. However, the DA said that not only would the law have an effect on the employability of coloured and Indian citizens, but it believed it would give the ANC enormous power over employment at private companies. The DA demanded a complete scrapping of the Act’s provisions that give the DEL minister the power to set racial quotas. It argued that the government determining racial quotas for private companies would result in the extension of cadre deployment into the private sector. Addressing the marchers, DA leader John Steenhuisen said about the ‘Race Quotas Act’: “This Act is not about empowerment or equality. It is about centralising the ultimate power in the ANC. The power to decide who should be employed, and who should starve."

• Read, Race quotas will see 'mafias' dictating to private businesses which cadres to employ, says Steenhuisen, at News24

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