BL Premium reports that a Department of Employment & Labour (DEL) official told MPs on Wednesday that the department would defend the constitutionality of the Employment Equity Amendment Act right up to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) if it lost the case in the lower courts.

The Act and its regulations impose employment equity targets for 18 economic sectors that have to be reached by the end of five years. The DA has argued in its Western Cape High Court challenge that the rigid targets amount to quotas, which are prohibited by the constitution, and it wants the Act to be declared unlawful and invalid. It is the DA’s argument that the law and its regulations fail to take into account the specific labour market dynamics faced by individual employers. But DEL Minister Nomakhosazana Meth insists they are necessary to achieve equality in the workplace. She maintains the employment equity targets are flexible and not rigid quotas and the law is fully constitutional. Acting DEL deputy director Thembinkosi Mkalipi told employment and labour committee MPs he was sure the DA would also take the matter to the ConCourt if it lost in the lower courts. “That is where the case will end up on both sides. We will fight to the end,” Mkalipi said, adding that the DEL was confident it had a good case. Sakeliga and the National Employers’ Association of SA (Neasa) have also vowed to legally challenge the Act. The DEL’s director for employment equity, Ntsoaki Mamashela, provided the employment equity data for 2024. This showed that white males still dominated the upper echelons of management while blacks were dominant in the lower semiskilled and unskilled categories.

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

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