COSATU Statement in response to the Statistician General’s findings The Congress of South African Trade Unions has been vindicated once more. Just as we said about the Commission of Employment Equity (CEE) findings, we are still of the view that “whilst the general South African body politic has been saved from racism and the teachings of Verwoerd, the South African workplace still represents the past”. The Statistician-General’s report on Employment Skills and Unemployment in South Africa 1994-2014 further confirms that the majority of our companies are still purely profit-oriented and not concerned about social transformation. Many of our companies have not embraced social transformation and merely pay lip service to skills development and employment equity. The report reveals that the situation is no different from that revealed in the CEE reports of the past five years. It also says that that the major achievers of employment equity are not different from the major beneficiaries of apartheid - white youths in general. At the bottom of the ladder are African youths who have only received 17.9% of Skills Training from a 1994 base of 15%. Whites on the other have received 61.5% from a 1994 base of 42%, and Indians 50.7% from a 26% 1994 base whilst Coloureds have received 22.5% from a 12% base. The Employment Equity Report had highlighted the fact that in the last fifteen years or so South Africa has only managed to only move between 20-30% of blacks in general into senior management positions. Its key findings were: 1. That white males still dominate senior management positions in most private sector workplaces. They have advanced higher than all other race group males as they have developed from a higher base than their counterparts. Many private sector companies still favour white males for senior management positions 2. White women have risen faster than any other group from equity programmes as private sector companies are now favouring them over other groups. Black females on the other hand have made the least advance in equity compared to all other groups 3. Males in general (both black and white) have in general had the better advancements than black females. This also reinforces the call by COSATU that skills development cannot be separated from employment equity processes. It also further confirms the obvious fact that employers, or the so-called free market, cannot advance the social cause of transformation. This is because they are extremely short sighted. There is a very poor recognition in those mostly lily-white boardrooms that unless the entire human resource of the country is mobilised, no meaningful economic development can proceed in the country. Also most company CEOs like Shoprite’s Whitey Basson, who earns in the region of R300m per annum, don’t care about the plight of blacks in general and Africans in particular. This happens whilst the state argues that it is a “developmental state”. We are calling on the ANC-led government to support the Deputy Minister Cde Buti Manamela in his argument that “the review of the national youth policy will focus on the unskilled and unemployed coloured and black youth”. We further call for the opening up of the teacher-training, agriculture and nursing colleges and for the full delivery of the necessities for basic education, especially in township and rural schools, so that the learners can come through with better results in maths, science, commerce and technology. We therefore support the COSAS march for the provision of these facilities, but it should be conducted after school hours or on Saturdays. We further urge the state to know that no country has addressed racial inequalities through free markets, which are purely profit-driven and nothing else Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson) Congress of South African Trade Unions 110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Streets Braamfontein 2017 P.O.Box 1019 Johannesburg 2000 South Africa Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct 010 219-1339 Fax: +27 11 339-6940 Mobile: +27 82 821 7456 E-Mail: [email protected] --
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:28:08 +0000
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