A Solidarity colleague told me this week about a bizarre meeting he had to attend. The meeting was at a company that wanted to discuss with trade unions the draconic racial regulations that had just been announced. The new amendments to the Employment “Equity” Act were on the agenda.

At the meeting he heard how the company wanted to discuss methods to get rid of almost 40% of its white employees, the reason being, to the astonishment of my colleague, to comply with the Employment “Equity” Act’s quotas.

Think about it: three decades after South Africa became an apparent non-racial democracy, a merciless race law is called Employment “Equity”. Even the white people around the table had to calmly sit and discuss how they would help themselves out of a job as if it was the most normal thing on earth.

This “normalisation” of abnormality reminds me of Karl Marx’s words, “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas [...].” By that he meant that the rulers’ ideas are translated into laws, taught in schools and propagated by media until society accepts these as normal, and automatically follows and promotes it. The worst of it is that in South Africa it is propagated as “redress, employment equity and non-racialism”.

The strange truth about Marx’s remark becomes clear when one looks at the South African Institute of Race Relations’ Race Law Index of 2022. They indicate with the help of sources that the South African parliament has made a total of 313 race laws since 1910. 116 of these race laws, 37% of the total, have been accepted since 1994! In total, 132 race laws still apply in the country; the most in the world. It therefore clearly indicates that the racial system was not abolished in 1994 but only placed under new management and reversed.

These race laws reach far beyond “redress” or “equity”. It may be written into law, but it is not right or fair to target competent, hardworking and loyal employees in the workplace based on their skin colour. Because of this, Solidarity is launching huge legal action against this Act and its regulations.

It is also the reason why the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the United Nations is engaged in a mediation process between Solidarity and the government, led by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). If no settlement is reached by August, Solidarity will proceed with an arbitration hearing in Geneva. We are convinced that the race laws in South Africa, even before these latest draconic amendments, contravene international conventions ratified by the government.

Two injustices are involved here. The first is the injustice that relegates white, coloured and Indian people to second-class citizens based on their skin colour. The second is that there are still many companies in the country that accept this injustice as “justice” and normal.

The Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt made an important statement about this following Italians’ obedience to Mussolini’s oppressive race laws. She said that nobody has the right to obey injustice.

Just because something is law, does not necessarily make it right. If you obey injustice because you are blindly following an unjust law, you are on the wrong side of justice. Such a law does not exist because it is “right” but only because those who institute it has the power to commit injustice.

The government’s aim to increase black people’s share in the country’s work force and economy is of course a legitimate one. To do so through these race laws is, however, an injustice, not only against white and coloured people but against the entire country and all its people. It one person’s right is violated then everyone’s right is violated.

Foolhardy race laws played a decisive role in the decay of large parts of the public service and public enterprises. The reason being that thousands of skilled and experienced employees and managers were removed from their jobs because of their race, often being replaced by cadres lacking the necessary expertise. If the same policy is to be imposed on the private sector, it can only have the same consequences.

This holds disastrous consequences for the country and all its people. Companies that willfully obey this new injustice, are not only complicit in this injustice but also in the growing crisis in the country. Supporting injustice is unjustifiable. That is why Arendt said that to simply accept the oppression of a group of people, is to be complicit in it. Business people may soon have to choose between the law and what is right.

Thus far, most large companies have chosen the law without questioning, and may soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law, especially if Solidarity can prove that this Act is contravening international law. Such companies will have to ensure that they obtain good advice from lawyers and not only listen to the politically correct law experts.

The question is not whether these laws are politically popular; the question is whether they work. This question has been answered by hundreds of rural towns and numerous public enterprises in recent years.

Ironically, the government’s own poor black supporters are disadvantaged by this in more than one way. First, they receive poor service delivery, and second they cannot find jobs because these race laws are stifling a job-creating economy. Laws cannot make economic realities disappear.

The government probably knows that these laws are unfair and that it will have the same results in the private sector as in the public service. However, the ANC is extremely concerned about their declining support on the eve of the 2024 elections. The reason why they are pushing these laws is to solve their own political problems even if it is at the expense of their own supporters’ economic problems. For the ANC, the solution lies in a full-fledged “demographic democracy”, where the population composition determines the election result.

The new race laws must not be seen in isolation of the other disasters that government has caused the country. This is the same ideology that has led to the decay of the country, corruption that goes unpunished, the crisis with crime and the economic collapse. Companies supporting these race laws must not complain about the power crisis, municipal decay or the danger looming if the Americans kick us out of the AGOA agreement. It is merely another piece of the same puzzle. Therefore, this racial dispensation is incompatible with a constitutional democracy, a working state and a vibrant economy.

Obedience to these unjust laws also makes a mockery of Mr Nelson Mandela’s promise made during his inauguration as president, that there would never again be oppression of one group by another. That is why company executives should know: you have no right to obey injustice.