Marching for a different normal
On Thursday 25 October a wave of orange hit Sandton. Thousands of people chanted “Enough is enough!” in Sandton’s narrow streets, and an echo carried the voices further. People took photos from balconies and luxury roof gardens of the tall buildings that constitute the heart of national and international capital. It was a strange phenomenon because people wearing orange shirts and caps challenged the norm.
Sasol’s Khanyisa employee share ownership plan is at the core of the dispute. This plan excludes people one hundred percent from it, and this by virtue of the colour of their skin. Racial exclusion is regarded as normal, non-racial, inclusive, the embracement of diversity, as redress and as equality. Any resistance to the race norm and any voices for inclusivity of all are seen as abnormal, racist, rightist, exclusionary, intolerant and anti-transformational.
The bitter irony of Sasol Khanyisa is that it is based on the Sasol core values of inclusivity and diversity. A white worker who has been working for Sasol for 30 years will get nothing while a young, black worker who has only been working there for three weeks will get a share worth R500 000. Rigid silos of race are being established in the name of inclusivity and diversity. When white workers then ask if it is not perhaps wrong that only black people benefit, then they are racist.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) was the marchers’ first stop. Sasol Khanyisa is listed on the JSE’s transformation segment. This segment of the JSE was created for the purpose of racial exclusion. There, only black can do business with black – a small, modern day homeland on the JSE. Sasol wants to retain its transformation status and wants to make sure its black shares do not end up in white hands. To list on the “JSE homeland” white people have to be kicked out of the deal because the sign above the homeland says: “Blacks Only”. The marchers in orange challenged that sign.
To exclude people based on race is not normal, and it can in no way be normalised. If it is left at that and it gets institutionalised it will not be reversed without radical intervention. Meanwhile, it is causing many people pain people of little political influence who belong to minorities.
Khanyisa is about shareholding in Sasol. Ordinary Sasol workers become co-owners of the company. This is in recognition of their contribution and it ties them in with the company’s vision. Senior staff (white and black) are tied in to Sasol’s vision. The only ones who are excluded are the ordinary white workers. They have to hear that they are not part of the company’s workforce; their role is being negated; and they are excluded from the company’s vision for the future. This leads to alienation and a denial of who they are. In essence, it boils down to denial of a piece of human dignity and that is not normal.
The core values of the Constitution of South Africa are human dignity, equality and freedom, and those values are presented in that order in the Constitution. Human dignity dare not have to pay the price for equality and freedom. The Constitutional Court’s ruling in the Barnard case has emphasised the importance of the dignity of white persons.
The Constitution makes allowance for the correction of imbalances, but not at the cost of any person’s dignity. Absolute exclusion is a slack way of addressing imbalance. Even a recent report by the South African Human Rights Commission warns against rigidity and quotas.
The marchers’ second stop was at Sasol’s Head Office, and there they challenged the rigidity of Sasol’s approach to affirmative action. This they did by serving legal papers on the company. This could turn into one of the biggest court cases in South Africa about the way in which race is applied in the implementation of transformation. In short, Solidarity will argue in court that the exclusion of white people amounts to a quota system, which is prohibited by the Employment Equity Act. Sasol will have to defend their racial exclusion in court. This company is the third largest in South Africa and exercises major influence on the market norm. Therefore, if Sasol is not challenged then racial exclusion will be the norm.
The United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), as well as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) make allowance for the implementation of special measures to eliminate racial discrimination, but such measures are subject to strict provisoes: The first is that such measures have to be temporary in nature. The temporary nature confirms its abnormality. The second proviso is that measures may not create separate silos for race groups. Different enclaves such as those created by Sasol’s Khanyisa plan and the JSE’s empowerment segment are abnormal. Thirdly, there is international warnings against the rigid implementation of such measures. Fourthly, it is recommended that the emphasis is on class rather than on race. In the fifth place it is generally recommended that any special measure be implemented in a nuanced manner and, in the last place, much emphasis is placed internationally on training, development and growth.
Internationally and in South Africa, it is assumed that redressing imbalances is not just necessary but it is essential. However, South Africa will find itself in a moral quagmire if a racial future is its answer to the past. Slack approaches with regard to race mean that the more difficult challenges and sustainable solutions such as efficient schools and tertiary institutions, as well as growth do not feature. If targets are aimed at training inputs then race outputs will follow naturally. Unadulterated race figures remove the person from the process and human dignity falls by the wayside because progress is measured by calculator. South Africa’s affirmative action policy has failed and by wanting to implement more of what is already a failure will not result in success.
The Sasol workers are ordinary working people. They are not politicians with agendas but are hardworking mothers and fathers who need to look after their families and who are concerned about their children’s future. They experience and see what the effects of racial exclusion are, and they were prepared to stand up against something that is wrong. They let a voice be heard that is normally not heard. They challenged a “normal” that goes far beyond Sasol. There comes a time that one has to stand up for something that is beyond the correctness of the politics of the day. On Thursday 25 October the Sasol workers and scores of others walked for another “normal”.
Dr Dirk Hermann is Chief Executive of Solidarity.
