Nothing right about affirmative action

16 July 2015

The newly appointed Mayor of Port Elizabeth, Danny Jordaan, is allegedly doing everything in his power to keep a court case against the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality form going forward. This follows after three officials dragged the Municipality to Labour Court after their decision to amend their Employment Equity Policy to represent the national and provincial demography rather than the local population (see EWN report).

This will mean that the amount of brown employees will decrease from 23% to 19%. Mr Jordaan allegedly says that although the Municipality has the right to amend the policy, he want to avoid unnecessary legal costs.

Marnus van Staden, Provincial Coordinator for AfriForum in the Eastern Cape, is of the opinion that Mr Jordaan doesn’t want to see the case to go to trial because affirmative action is unconstitutional. “A system where employments are based on race cannot promote equity when the principals of such a system prevents South Africans from having equal rights. The government hereby tells us that the rights of the majority are more important than the rights of minority groups in South Africa.”

According to the latest Auditors-General reports, the Municipality’s biggest obstacle is a lack in skills. The report further states that the Premier will be keeping a closer watch over the Municipality in order to obtain a clean audit. “If people are appointed according to capability, the Premier wouldn’t have to get involved, but the ANC is too focussed on cadre deployment. They hide behind affirmative action and the only ones who benefit from it sits at the top of the ANC hierarchy,” says Van Staden.

AfriForum challenges Mr Jordaan to make a true difference by demolishing the policy completely and base employment on merit rather than race.

Statement issued by Marnus van Staden, AfriForum Provincial Coordinator: Eastern Cape, July 16 2015