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Urgent court action by two business organisations aims to halt employment equity quotas

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newsMoneyweb reports that Sakeliga and the National Employers Association of SA (Neasa) filed an urgent Gauteng High Court application this week challenging race and gender targets under the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA), which became law in January 2025.

The Act sets hiring quotas for 18 economic sectors, from agriculture and mining to transport and construction. “The application challenges the legality and constitutionality of the newly introduced employment equity framework, which introduces rigid race and gender quotas across 18 economic sectors on the top four occupational levels,” according to a statement by the business organisations. These quotas, formally published in April 2025, require employers with 50 or more employees to restructure their entire workforce to reflect the national gender and racial demographics of the country, or face dire consequences. The challenge involves two steps: The first asks the court for a judicial review of the “procedurally flawed” manner in which the minister went about setting the quotas. The second part, yet to be launched, attacks the constitutionality of the quotas under the relevant parts of the Employment Equity Act (EEA). Neasa and Sakeliga argue that Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth skirted the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (Paja) by not applying the relevant sections of the EEA in arriving at the race quotas. The EEAA has received pushback from business, the DA and trade union Solidarity.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ciaran Ryan at Moneyweb
  • See too, Sakeliga, Neasa lodge legal challenge against Employment Equity quotas, at Engineering News


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