Whites hang on to the top jobs in SA

Image: GCIS

The 13th edition of the report shows whites constituted 72.6% of top management positions in the country last year, down from 81.5% in 2002.

The report reflects figures for both the public and private sectors.

Blacks occupied 12.3% of top management positions in 2012, compared with 10% in 2002.

Commission chairman Dr Loyiso Mzisi Mbabane handed the report to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant during a Transformation Indaba in Boksburg, on the East Rand.

|According to the report, coloureds now occupied 4.6% of top management positions, compared with 3.4% in 2002. Indians held 7.3% of the positions, up from 5% then.

The number of foreigners in top management positions in 2012 was 3.1%, compared with zero in 2002. However, this hardly surprising as the labour department only started collecting data in 2006.

Mbabane expressed disappointment at the levels of transformation.

"This is unacceptable," he said. "This is not what we expected‚ especially as we have laws that govern transformation."

Employment Equity Act

"If we did not have the Employment Equity Act one might say that people are trying their luck and are not understanding. But we have a law that says specifically companies must have an [employment equity] plan."

He said the government had expected companies to put their employment equity plans into effect by 2000.

"The 2% increase in black people occupying top management positions says that either we don't take those [employment equity] plans seriously‚ or we never took the act seriously. It is not acceptable‚" said Mbabane.

The report was compiled using thousands of employment equity reports from the public sector and private companies across all sectors of the South African economy.

It showed that men continued to dominate top management‚ although their representation level dropped by 6.1%‚ from 86.2% in 2002 to 80.1% in 2012.

Female representation in top management rose by 6.1%‚ from 13.7% in 2002 to 19.8% in 2012.

Mbabane said what was disappointing was that the percentage of women in top management had increased from 13.7% in 2002 to 21.6% in 2006‚ before falling back to 19.8% in 2012.

The report further noted that blacks occupied 10.8% of senior management positions in 2002 but that this figure had now risen to 18.4 percent.

Whites held 77.9% of senior management positions in 2002 and a decade later this had declined to 62.4%.

Coloureds held 5.1% of senior management positions in 2002 and the figure had risen to 7.1% in 2012.

Indian representation in senior management stood at 6.3% in 2002 and rose to 9.5% in 2012.

Oliphant told the conference that policies to implement Employment Equity in the workplace would remain.

"There are those who are calling for a sunset clause on employment equity‚" she said. "To make this call now is mischievous at best, or at worst, shows a callous disregard for history and its negative ramifications. The effects will be felt way beyond the two decades of freedom. There is still a long way to go to achieve transformation in this country"‚ she said.

"We have not arrived at the proverbial Jordan. Not by a long shot. Much work needs to be done to create equitable and transformed workplaces, which are free from discrimination," she added.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge