Re: Open Letter to Cosatu Members on Employment Equity and the Zille Letter

Dear Comrades,

Please receive correspondence from our offices in relation to the issue of Employment Equity and the position taken by the DA and Premier Zille.

The Law presently states that Provincial demographics must be used for workplaces in the Western Cape. This means that positions across all levels of employment must be occupied by all the people of the Province in relation to their demographic proportion of the Western Cape.

This is a position that Cosatu Western Cape supports and will take forward in the discussions on the National regulations being considered. This is based on the understanding that we must build a fair and equitable labour market, which undoes the apartheid legacy of white privileged and Black [African, Coloured and Indian] prejudice. The regulations under discussion are needed to clarify to departments like Correctional Services - who needs to have Employment Equity interpreted.

The Premier has never supported employment equity and the DA has had big divisions amongst themselves on the question of Employment Equity, as reflected a few weeks ago. Premier Zille herself has put together a Cabinet that was made up mainly of Pale Males. In the Provincial Government the majority of management are white, as well as an army of white consultants that you see every day.

The DA has publicly stated that this is the case because there are not suitably qualified blacks [Coloured, African and Indian]. The Premier and the DA has consistently defended the apartheid generational advantage of white people. That is the same reason why the DA never says or tries to equalise educational facilities and opportunities between township and Constantia schools. The main reason for now raising this issue is their attempts to defend the privileged position of white Managers, under the guise of "coloured" interest.

The letter from the Premier Zille is to try and construct Coloured concerns and promote Coloured/White solidarity against Africans, for election purposes. This is the same tactic that Mayor De Lille tried when she said the "refugees" (as Zille refers to people) had been bussed into Siqalo.  The DA is clearly intent on fermenting racial tensions amongst blacks, as the key part of their political strategy, to maintain the City and the Province under White ownership and control.   The attitude of the DA government has led to the private sector flouting National legal requirements to employment equity and them having more than 50% white employees in senior positions.

Apartheid gave the Whites the advantages they now have and the new racism is to defend these advantages and the privileged positions. This is why the DA wants the status quo to remain as is and they hide behind other race issues to discredit the policies of equality and redress, much like Solidariteit. As Cosatu we will continue building a province that brings together black and white in equality and fairness, for greater social justice whilst rejecting the more sophisticated racism that white racist use who want to maintain their apartheid  advantages at the cost of blacks.  

Yours Comradely

Tony Ehrenreich

Provincial Secretary

Issued by COSATU Western Cape, April 7 2014

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