Manyi: Why did Trevor Manuel and the Zuma cabinet sign off on racist law?

Trevor Manuel is right to condemn his own government's spokesperson, Jimmy Manyi, following Mr Manyi's loathsome attempt to use new labour laws as a means of achieving Apartheid-era social engineering.

However, it is insincere for Mr Manuel to fail to acknowledge the role that he, and the rest of his cabinet colleagues, played in this process.

Mr Manuel writes in his open letter: "Given the fact that the amendments to the Employment Equity Act were drafted during your tenure, I have a sense that your racism has infiltrated the highest echelons of government."

We agree. But why is it that Mr Manuel, President Zuma, and the rest of the cabinet, signed off on precisely the legislation that they are now calling racist?

This legislation may have been drafted on Mr Manyi's watch, but it was approved by two separate labour ministers, the cabinet and the President. No bills are introduced until there is consensus in cabinet. Cabinet ministers like Mr Manuel cannot eschew their own responsibility here.

Unless it is that Mr Manuel and his colleagues simply had not bothered to read the proposed legislation. If that is the case, then they need to explain why legislation of such importance was treated so blithely.

The fact is President Jacob Zuma has neither censured nor sacked Jimmy Manyi. Nor has President Zuma apologised for introducing these laws in the first place. Nor has President Zuma indicated that the legislation will be rewritten. Until all three of those things happen, the ANC government has no credibility on this matter.

Statement issued by Dr Wilmot James MP, DA Federal Chairperson, March 2 2011

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