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Duma Gqubule: Five years ago a large JSE-listed company asked me to help it develop an employment equity stra

Gqubule is founding director at the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation.

Five years ago a large JSE-listed company asked me to help it develop an employment equity strategy. It soon became clear that this would be a difficult assignment. The first thing I noticed was the underrepresentation of black women. When I interviewed the head of human resources, she replied: “African women think this is a glamorous job.”

After interviewing many people in focus groups I went to the board subcommittee, which included the CEO and COO, with a long report that told a story of institutional racism within the company. But it was also clear that this was just one symptom of deeper rot and a toxic culture. It was such a traumatic experience I decided never to do such work again. Later, a private equity team took over the company and fired the CEO and COO.

I remembered this experience when I read the latest Commission for Employment Equity report. In the private sector there has been no progress in achieving employment equity for more than a decade. Between 2008 and 2020 the percentage of black people (80.9% of the population) in top management in the private sector has barely increased to 12.7%, from 12.5%.

The representation of black women (41.4% of the population) increased to 4.6% from 3.8%. The representation of South Africans of Indian descent (2.6% of the population) soared to 10.9% from 5.9%. This accounted for 86.2% of the increase in black (African, coloured and Indian) representation to 29.1% from 23.3%. During the same period the percentage of black people in senior management rose to 18% from 15%. The representation of black women grew to 6.7% from 5.2%. The representation of South Africans of Indian descent increased to 12.5% from 7.4%. This accounted for 54.3% of the increase in black representation to 38.6% from 29.2%.

Due to patriarchy, women of all races account for only 23.4% and 34.3% of people in top and senior management, respectively. But white women (4% of the population) accounted for 58.5% and 57.7% of all women in top and senior management, respectively. Their representation in top and senior management is 3.3 and 4.8 times their share of the population, respectively.

I argue with Commission for Employment Equity chair Tabea Kabinde about this all the time. The Employment Equity Act of 1998 has failed. No amount of tinkering with it will change the status quo because in many cases we are dealing with institutional racism.

The shortfalls to achieve the 60% targets in the BEE codes for top and senior management are 16,149 and 25,368, respectively. But more than 2-million black people have tertiary education qualifications. There are 8,000 black women chartered accountants but only a few are CEOs or financial directors in listed companies.

The time has come to impose employment equity quotas, as is the case for women in many countries. In 2003, Norway legislated a 40% quota for women on company boards. Companies were given four years to meet the quota.

According to a report by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation, “the successful implementation of the quota was due mainly to sanctions, the toughest of which was the forced dissolution of noncompliant companies … When there were no sanctions in the initial phase, companies did not widely implement the policy on a voluntary basis. The Norwegian experience shows that without a quota legislation, there will be no change.”

A recent Harvard Business Review article says gender quotas on corporate boards have emerged as a popular tool for policymakers to promote gender equality in the workplace. Spain, Finland, Iceland, France, Israel, Kenya, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Germany and Austria have implemented quotas. SA must follow these examples and introduce quotas for gender and race for large companies.

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2021-09-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://bd.pressreader.com/article/281732682624600

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