Solidarity writes to companies – you do not have the right to obey the injustice of the new race law

1 June 2023

Solidarity today wrote to at least 2 000 of South Africa’s major companies, asking them to record their protest against the government’s latest race laws.

Companies are requested to collectively refuse to implement the Act, to exert political pressure on the government and to join the legal battle.

Solidarity Chief Executive writes that now is not the time for blind obedience, but it is time for positive protest. This will be for the good of everyone in South Africa.

According to the letter, companies that obey this new injustice are not only complicit in the injustice but also in the deepening crisis in the country. The letter also points out that companies do not have the right to obey injustice.

It is also pointed out in the letter that the new Act deprives employers of the right to do business and employees of the right to work.

Therefore, as Hermann writes, the onus to stop the Act and the regulations rests largely on businesses.

Hermann further states that these regulations make South Africa the most racially regulated country in the world. These regulations place employers in an impossible position. They are unimplementable, but will become law.

Continuing, the letter reads: “Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, writes in a column that the new racial laws should not be seen in isolation from the broader disasters the government has wrought upon the country. It is the very same ideology that has led to the country’s decay, the impunity of corruption, the crime crisis and economic collapse. Companies that support these racial laws should not complain about the energy crisis, municipal decay or about the risk of the US kicking us out of the AGOA agreement. This is just another piece of the same puzzle.”

The new race law and the regulations give the Minister of Employment and Labour the right to identify sectors and to set race quotas for these sectors that can be imposed on employers.

The minister has published 60 pages of regulations prescribing in detail to employers what their race numbers should look like.

“Redressing imbalances or creating more jobs is a legitimate goal but the focus is not on redress or jobs but on race – even if it is at the cost of jobs,” Hermann writes.

Here is the letter to employers, and here is the report's executive summary. 

Issued by Connie Mulder, Solidarity Research Institute (SRI): Head, 1 June 2023