The public service has met employment equity targets for racial quotas, Public Service and Administration Minister Ayanda Dlodlo says.
The government has been struggling to enforce transformation in the private sector, where the white population occupies about 72% of top management positions.
According to the Commission for Employment Equity’s annual report, just more than 73% of top management positions in the public sector are occupied by the African population.
More than 50% of the 192 companies that have been referred for prosecution for not complying with employment equity law are listed on the JSE.
The Department of Labour has been looking to promulgate section 53 of the Employment Equity Act to prevent the offenders from doing business with the state as a countermeasure.
Responding to a written question from the Freedom Front Plus, Dlodlo said on Tuesday that as at April 30 2018, the public service consisted of 1,139,715 public servants.
“The public service largely mirrors the demographics of the country and consists of an African population of 81.4% [927,446], coloured population of 8.6% [98,333], white population of 7.5% [85,422] and the Asian population of 2.5% [28,514],” said Dlodlo.
“Employment equity targets have successfully been met in terms of race. Number of employees in the public service has been fluctuating for the past five years, which affects affirmative action policy aggregate in terms of the targets.”
Dlodlo said employment of persons with disabilities in the public service had been consistently increasing, although not satisfactorily.
“The 2% equity target in terms of disability has not been reached and is currently standing at 0.95%,” she said.
Article by , Business Day.
