Heed South Africans’ rejection of fake transformation, IRR urges Minister of Employment and Labour

After trying for two weeks without success to arrange the handover of a petition of more than 12,300 signatures against race law at employment and labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth’s offices, Institute of Race Relations (IRR) staffers Hermann Pretorius and Makone Maja resorted yesterday to handing over the petition at the Department of Employment and Labour instead. 

The team also handed over a copy of the IRR’s draft legislation on scrapping race law, the #NoMoreRaceLaws Bill. 

The bill and the petition form part of the IRR’s #WhatSACanBe campaign. Meth has been singled out as a fitting recipient of these documents, given her department’s responsibility for the recently introduced Employment Equity Amendment Act, which Maja and Pretorius describe as South Africa's most racially divisive regulations to date, which amount to “fake transformation”. 

Says Maja: “The government pays lip service to economic transformation, yet its conduct tells us that it is dedicated to fake transformation. We all know fake transformation when we see it. It is characterised by racial and gendered swapping of candidates in management positions, subordinating value for money to race and gender quotas which have destroyed service delivery, and high levels of inequality that result from reserving privileged access to economic opportunities for the political elite. It doesn’t empower people who need it the most. That is what makes it fake.” 

Maja notes that the IRR was given a warm reception by departmental staff despite their not being the appropriate personnel to receive the petition. 

She adds: “The Department committed to arranging a successful handover on our return, which we will pursue until all 12,373 voices are heard. These are the voices of people who have signed up to stand behind the IRR’s #WhatSouthAfricaCanBe campaign. Their message to the Minister is that driving inclusion in economic transformation can be achieved when it is entrenched in skills and ability, and when it targets genuinely marginalised people.” 

Maja concludes: “Minister Meth has an obligation to heed the concerns of these citizens who plainly see that, while her government presides over the highest unemployment in South Africa’s democratic era, she introduces policies that are hostile to a growth-enabling economic environment, and they want this to end.” 

The IRR will be hosting a webinar to discuss how to reverse the effects of fake transformation which is the race-based kind that has mostly benefited the friends and family of politicians and blocks economic access for the rest. This discussion will present the Institute’s proposal for true transformation that triggers growth, jobs and prosperity. The link to the webinar can be found here and the video on the IRR’s visit to the Head Office of the Department of Employment and Labour is here.

Media contact: Makone Maja, IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za 

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za