Affirmative Action in South Africa: Everything You Need to Know

South Africa has a history of racial oppression in which people of many communities were dubbed second-class citizens. Black South Africans, women, and people with disabilities have suffered for decades now. As the country entered into a new age, it recognized that it is important to level the playing field for everyone with the help of Affirmative Action policies.

Affirmative Action in South Africa rests on remedial actions that need to be taken to stop the discriminatory practices that gave rise to inequality. The South African Affirmative Action legislation came into effect in 1998 under the Employment Equity Act. This Act was brought into effect to attain equality for all citizens of South Africa. It aimed to eliminate unfair discrimination in employment and remuneration practices that existed for decades. It also envisaged taking affirmative or positive measures to develop, attract and retain people from disadvantaged communities. These communities or groups consisted of Africans, Indians, mixed-race individuals, and also women and differently-abled people.

In this article, we will explore the concept of Affirmative Action and Labour Laws in the context of South Africa.

Affirmative Action Explained

Workplace policies based on Affirmative Action aim to make the workplace fair and also more representative. It ensures that people from all groups, having the relevant qualifications, are able to obtain better opportunities in the workplace. In South Africa, the major disadvantaged groups consisted of colored, black, and Indian people, besides differently-abled people and women. The Affirmative Action, under the EE Act, aims to right the wrong done to these groups by providing them with better access to opportunities and fair representation.

Aim of Affirmative Action 

The aim of Affirmative Action in South Africa is to ensure that qualified candidates belonging to designated groups get fair opportunities in employment. Affirmative Action also envisages that the candidates belonging to these groups are equally represented at all levels in a workplace and in all categories.

Now you must be wondering how this would be practically reflected in a workplace. To implement Affirmative Action in their policies, an employer has to create an action plan for the same. This plan would make sure that the designated groups are represented at all levels of management, including the top levels.

Application of Affirmative Action Policies

 Following are some sectors where Affirmative Action policies have to be applied –

· Companies with more than 50 workers.

· When the annual income of employers is more than the specified amount in Schedule 4 of the EE Act.

· In municipalities

· In organs of state

Besides this, some employers also volunteer to comply with and implement Affirmative Action policies.

Affirmative Action – How do employers comply? 

To achieve employment equity in the workplace, an employer will have to implement certain measures for Affirmative Action for the designated groups. The employers would have to do –

· Consultation with the employees

· Analysis of the measures

· Preparation of an Employment Equity plan

· Sending reports about the implementation and progress of the plan to the Director-General.

While implementing the Affirmative Action measures, it is important to identify and remove barriers that adversely affect the designated groups. The employers would also have to promote diversity and reasonably accommodate individuals from disadvantaged groups. Besides this, the employers should also provide training and skills development to these groups.

Conclusion 

With this, we have covered everything you need to know about the Affirmative Action and Employment Equity Act in South Africa. To know more about this Act, you can click on this link.