Too many whites in Gauteng

To accommodate government’s affirmative action policy of representivity, millions of South Africans – including more than 1.1 million coloureds from the Western Cape, and 300,000 whites from Gauteng – would need to be uprooted and moved.

This is according to a new report published by trade union, Solidarity, which pointed out that the 1.1 million coloureds represent 80% of the economically active coloured population in the Western Cape.

Those coloured South Africans would largely have to be replaced by black South Africans hailing from all provinces except from the Northern Cape, should government apply its affirmative action policy of representivity.

In all, 65% of coloured South Africans would have to leave the Northern Cape, and 70% of Indian South Africans would have to move away from KwaZulu-Natal, the report said.

“If government wants to implement its controversial affirmative action programme, it would lead to large-scale social engineering. Government argues that the national demography should be applied in all provinces,” said Solidarity chief executive, Dirk Hermann.

The report has been released on the eve of the controversial affirmative action court case in which the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) requests that the national demographics be applied to the Western Cape.

Judgement is being made on claims that that the department relied solely on the national demographics for the appointments.

“The consequences of government’s plans are absurd to the extent that one can almost not believe that the DCS wants to defend them in court. Figures in the Solidarity report show that it is both practically and politically impossible to implement government’s race ideology,” Hermann said.

The report also indicates that there are approximately 190,000 too many whites in the Western Cape and 308,000 too many in Gauteng.

There are about 300,000 too many black Africans in Limpopo and 260,000 too many in KwaZulu-Natal.

To achieve government’s goal of equal race representivity in all provinces more than three million South Africans will have to relocate, Solidarity said.

“Ironically, black Africans constitute the group of which the highest number, namely 1.3 million would have to relocate. Coloured South Africans, with a total of 1.2 million persons who would need to relocate, constitute the second largest group, the trade union’s research unit said.

According to Stats SA, black africans make up 76.3% of the economically active population, followed by the coloured population (10.5%), white population (10.4%, and Indian/Asian population (2.8%).

The Case

According to Solidarity, in the 2012 case it brought against the DCS on behalf of Christo February the state’s advocate argued as follows:

February could move anywhere in South Africa if the demographics in the Western Cape did not benefit him … Take North West for instance: the population is mostly black. They need a combination of black, coloured and white people. The idea is to fill the gaps.

“Therefore, it really is the state’s intention that people should move to those provinces where their number is under-represented. This is what they will formally argue in court.”

“Therefore, such statements are not just populist statements. Hence, people don’t have rights where they are living but will have to move to where they do have rights,” Hermann said.

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