Solidarity will tackle DCS in Constitutional Court

11 June 2015

On 3 November this year, trade union Solidarity will tackle the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) in the Constitutional Court on behalf of ten of its members. The trade union disputes a section of an earlier judgment by the Labour Court in this prominent court case on the application of national racial demographics by the DCS.

On 10 April this year, the Court ruled in favour of Solidarity by determining that the DCS may not only take the national demographics into consideration when appointing and promoting employees. However, the Court still did not grant any individual legal remedy to the applicants and indicated that no clear evidence existed that the members would have been appointed in these positions if the DCS had used the region’s demographics as guideline.  

“We did not agree with the court’s view on this, as a panel had identified our members as the most suitable candidates for the posts concerned. We believe our members would have been appointed if the DCS had not enforced the national racial demographics. Therefore, we will dispute this part of the judgment in the Constitutional Court,” said Dirk Groenewald, Head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices.

Groenewald added that the DCS has not lodged an appeal against any part of the Labour Appeal Court’s April ruling; it only intends to oppose Solidarity’s appeal. “That in itself is a victory for us in that the DCS now accepts that they cannot only use the national demographics for setting their affirmative action targets.”

This prominent court case against the DCS began in 2012 when the trade union consolidated a number of cases regarding the department’s controversial affirmative action plan. In terms of this plan, the national demographics has to be reflected at all job levels irrespective of the profile of the province or region. Coloured South Africans constitute about 51% of the economically active South Africans in the Western Cape, and in many specific regions, the percentage is even higher, although they only constitute about 8,8% of the total population.

Statement issued by Dirk Groenewald, Head: Centre for Fair Labour Practices, Solidarity, June 11 2015