Government fall short in equity demands

As government puts
pressure on businesses
around the country –
currently mostly through
the black economic
empowerment legislation
– to achieve demographic
levels of management, it
is not living up to its own
demands.
According to February’s
issue of The SA Survey
2016, released by
the Institute of Race
Relations (IRR), national
government departments
and parastatals lag far
behind provincial and local
government in employment
equity.
Relying on data from
the Commission for
Employment Equity, the
IRR found that only 54.9%
of top managers in national
government and 59.4%
in parastatals were black-
African, compared to 73.8%
at provincial government
level and 75.7% at local
government level.
The reason why national
government fails to achieve
the same demographic
outcomes as local and
provincial government
was not immediately clear,
according to the IRR.
However, at least one
FTW executive contact
suggested that it could be
largely because of a need
for high levels of skills
sets – much of which are
acquired or developed
through experience.