If you are white, you stand a very good chance of being in top management in the Western Cape, an EE report found.
|||Cape Town - If you are white, you stand a very good chance of being in top management in the Western Cape, a report by the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) has found.
The 13th annual report states in the province white men occupy 65.5 percent and white women 14 percent of top management positions in government, business, NGOs and educational institutions, while only 7.8 percent of economically active men and 7 percent of women in the Western Cape are white.
The CEE found the Western Cape has the most representation of whites at top management than any of the nine provinces, but on average white males hold 57.8 percent and females 12.2 percent of top management posts across the country.
Premier Helen Zille said in response to the the report that it was “absolutely useless” as it lumped together all sectors of government, business, NGOs and education in its comparison of employment equity between provinces.
“It is absolutely useless, we can’t use it or draw any conclusions and it is impossible to check whether they are right or wrong,” she said. Last year, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant called Zille’s provincial government the “worst performer” in employment equity.
Zille tried to pre-empt the release of the CEE report on Wednesday when she said the province was “absolutely not racist”. Her government’s statistics showed that 63 percent of its senior managers are either coloured or African.
CEE chairman Loyiso Mbabane wrote in the report that nationally the percentageof Africans, coloureds and Indians at top management level had declined between2010 and 2012, while that of whites went up.
He likened South Africa’s progress in terms of employment equity to a “drunkard’s walk from the bar”.
The report had found:
* Whites were recruited, skilled and promoted into senior and top management more than any other group.
* At senior management level, the highest percentage, or 47.7 percent, of all skills development went to white men.
* Last year, 47.4 percent of recruitments into top management targeted white men, 14.8 percent Africans, 3.7 percent coloureds and 5.6 percent Indians.
* In 2012, more white women (15.9 percent) were promoted into top management than black men (12.6 percent).
* The Western Cape was doing the best in terms of female representation, but white females were the next preferred group after white men at the senior management level in most provinces.
* Africans have the second-largest representation in all provinces, except Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal at senior management level.
* Coloureds may appear to be performing well in the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape, but much more must be done to increase their representation at management level.
* The Eastern Cape is doing the best of all provinces in terms of gender equity.
Mbabane said black men and women in top management positions had not yet flexed their muscle and their impact was not yet showing.
cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za
Cape Times