Dear Editor
“But instead of kowtowing to the ANC’s diktats, business leaders should locate their backbone and begin to fight back, in the same way that CEOs and chairmen of listed companies defied influx control and job reservation in the 1970s and 1980s.”
The craven and desperate letter penned by Dischem CEO, Ivan Saltzman, in which he calls for a moratorium on the appointment of whites in his company, underscores the panic engendered by pending changes to employment equity (EE) legislation.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, which the DA opposed in Parliament and which now sits on the President’s desk awaiting his signature, is a damaging and destructive exercise in social engineering. It is a job-destroying jackhammer, and it will worsen South Africa’s economic woes.
Critically, the Bill empowers the Minster of Employment and Labour to set numerical EE targets for any national economic sector after a vaguely defined process of consultation with the relevant sectors.
The Minister will be able to set targets for different occupational levels, sub-sectors or regions, backed by hefty fines for non-compliance. The Bill facilitates the reintroduction of race quotas by another name. Inevitably, the new EE regime will deter investors, undermine economic growth and jeopardise jobs at a time when many businesses are on their knees.
It is against this backdrop that Saltzman’s letter must be understood. Businesses are in a tailspin at the thought of sacrificing 10 per cent of their turnover on the altar of the ANC’s racial madness. Fines of this magnitude would bankrupt many firms.
But instead of kowtowing to the ANC’s diktats, business leaders should locate their backbone and begin to fight back, in the same way that CEOs and chairmen of listed companies defied influx control and job reservation in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill is ripe for a constitutional challenge. Saltzman and his peers should take the fight to the government rather than meekly acquiesce in the Department of Employment and Labour’s Verwoerdian fantasies.
Regards
Dr Michael Cardo MP
DA Shadow Minister of Employment and Labour
