{"id":836008,"date":"2025-08-26T12:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836008"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:55:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:55:33","slug":"big-changes-hitting-south-african-companies-with-over-50-employees-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/836008\/big-changes-hitting-south-african-companies-with-over-50-employees-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Big changes hitting South African companies with over 50 employees next week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The opening of the 2025 Employment Equity (EE) Reports starts soon, with the Department of Labour warning employers to have their documentation ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The submission of EE Reports for the 2025 EE reporting period begins on Monday, 1 September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Employment Equity Amendment Act of 2022 became operational from 1 January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new law primarily applies to businesses that employ 50 or more people and requires that their workforces show the country\u2019s demographics at all levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve this, the department has set out specific numerical targets across 18 industries in South Africa that businesses must fill with \u2018designated employees\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These employees include black (African, Coloured and Indian), female and disabled workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to do so could see employers face fines of up to R1.5 million or 2% of turnover, and have their  Employment Equity Compliance Certificates, which are necessary for state contracts, withdrawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of the year, two sets of EE Regulations on EE reporting forms and other EE templates, as well as the five-year sector EE targets for the 18 economic sectors, have been published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are designed to give guidelines to employers and employees on how to interpret and implement the recent EE amendments and sector EE targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What employers need to do <\/h2>\n\n\n
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As per the EE Act, designated employers are required to prepare and implement an EE plan from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designated employers, who hire 50 more employees, have been reminded to submit their EE reports from  1 September 2025 to 1 October 2025 for manual submission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can also submit their reports online from 1 September 2025 to 15 January 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designated employers\u2019 compliance will be assessed against the annual EE targets to meet the relevant five-year sectoral numerical EE targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers looking to complete the 2025 EE report online or declare their current status as a non-designated employer must click an activation link sent to all employers via email from 1 September 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-designated employers, those that employ fewer than 50 employees, must confirm or update their statuses to get their EE Compliance Certificate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers who previously deregistered their EE account must notify the Director-General of the Department of Employment and Labour to reactivate their EE account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers who do not have an EE account must register their profile online and access the EE online portal to request the EE Compliance Certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixed reactions <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Various business groups have seen mixed reactions to the new legislation and regulations in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Chamber said that the new regulations and sector-specific numerical targets will accelerate South Africa’s workforce transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frik Boonzaaier from the BEE Chamber said the flexibility offered to employers will help businesses find the space to adapt to the regulations over the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the GNU member, the DA, launched a constitutional challenge against the new laws, specifically against Section 15a of the Employment Equity Amendment Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party said the recent amendments are constitutionally invalid and abuse state power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSection 15a violates Section 9 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law and prohibits unfair discrimination,\u201d said the DA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA law that forces employers to fire or refuse to hire people based on race, whether they are black, coloured, Indian, or white, is not redress. It is unconstitutional discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Designated employers will soon need to submit their Employment Equity (EE) reports as per new legislation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":834862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[17130],"class_list":["post-836008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-employment-and-labour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836008","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847685,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836008\/revisions\/847685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}