{"id":826320,"date":"2025-06-01T15:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=826320"},"modified":"2025-06-01T15:24:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:24:24","slug":"111000-women-and-70000-white-men-can-lose-their-jobs-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/826320\/111000-women-and-70000-white-men-can-lose-their-jobs-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"111,000 women and 70,000 white men can lose their jobs in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) warned that new legislation puts the jobs of 111,000 women and 70,000 white men at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SRI referred to the Employment Equity (EE) Amendment Act, which took effect on 1 January 2025, requiring companies to reflect the demographic profile of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) said inspectors specialising in employment equity are ready to implement the EE Amendment Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DEL\u2019s employment equity directorate, Deputy Director Masilo Lefika said companies with over 50 employees must prepare and implement an Employment Equity (EE) plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This EE plan applies for the period from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2030 to align with the timeframes of the five-year sector EE targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Department of Employment and Labour is driving the implementation of the plan, others have launched legal action against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DA has launched a constitutional challenge to Section 15A of the Employment Equity Amendment Act, which introduces rigid national race quotas in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese quotas will destroy jobs, undermine the economy, and violate the constitutional rights of all South Africans,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are taking the Minister of Employment and Labour to court because Section 15A represents a radical and harmful departure from previous employment equity law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe final quotas make it virtually impossible for some communities, particularly coloured workers in the Western Cape and Indian workers in KwaZulu-Natal, to find or keep jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DA argued that transformation comes through inclusive economic growth, not divisive race-based quotas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth said this legal challenge is an attempt to reverse the progress made since 1994 and maintain the unfair status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Act empowers the Minister to set numerical targets for equitable representation of suitably qualified individuals from designated groups at all occupational levels,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is done after consulting relevant sectors and with the advice of the Commission, ensuring that the Minister does not act arbitrarily.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

111,000 women and 70,000 white men can lose their jobs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Connie Mulder, head of the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) said its analysis showed that large numbers of women and white men could lose their jobs due to the employment equity targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmployers in South Africa will be forced to replace thousands of white male workers and women of all racial groups who work in the education or healthcare sectors,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Solidarity Research Institute analysed the regulations whereby the government will soon attempt to enforce employment equity through race and gender scorecards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers face hefty fines of as much as 10% of a company\u2019s turnover if they fail to employ staff, especially in lower job levels, who comply with the figures published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Solidarity Research Institute report showed the potential impact of Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth\u2019s race scorecards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • 76,000 female healthcare workers must be replaced by men over five years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 65,000 female teachers must be replaced by men over five years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 70,000 white men in all sectors must be replaced by men from other racial groups.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 13,000 black men must be replaced in public administration positions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMiddle-class workers in particular, rather than top management, will be hit hard by this,\u201d Solidarity said in a press statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The deadline for employers to start submitting these race plans is September 2025. Failure to comply will have serious consequences for employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Connie Mulder, head of the SRI, said over-eagerness has resulted in only the economically active population being considered as a criterion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe tendency of men and women to freely pursue diverse and specific career paths has been completely ignored,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWomen more often pursue careers in nursing, education or the arts, and men often pursue jobs in construction, mining and the transport sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mulder said these sectoral targets and strict central regulation of labour in South Africa are blatant discrimination against minorities or groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) warned that new legislation puts the jobs of 111,000 women and 70,000 white men at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":813922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22709,22708,22707,22329,18390],"class_list":["post-826320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-connie-mulder","tag-department-of-employment-and-labour-del","tag-employment-equity-ee-amendment-act","tag-nomakhosazana-meth","tag-solidarity-research-institute-sri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826324,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826320\/revisions\/826324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}