Solidarity researcher Paul Joubert has testified that the Department of Correctional Services’ figures are “unsuitable” for use as EE targets
|||Cape Town - In defending its employment policies, the Department of Correctional Services has told the Labour Court that “coloured labour has always been preferred and protected in the Western Cape”.
Trade union Solidarity, nine Correctional Services employees and a job applicant have taken the department to court over alleged racial discrimination, saying they have been denied posts for which they applied.
The group argue that the department’s equity targets should be in line with provincial rather than national demographics. They are challenging the validity of the department’s employment equity plan.
Solidarity researcher Paul Joubert testified this week that he believed the department’s figures were “unsuitable” for use as employment equity targets. The department used total population figures, including children and the elderly, rather than the number of people in the workforce. The use of “economically active” population figures was more appropriate.
According to data compiled by Census 2011, at least 48.8 percent of the Western Cape’s population is coloured.
Joubert said based on national demographics, the provincial department had an over-representation of 2 410 coloured employees. It employed 3 094 coloured people when its target was 684. However, if provincial demographics were used, there would be an under-representation of 899 coloured people.
Marumo Moerane, SC, for the department, questioned Joubert’s knowledge of apartheid and the historical events that affected the country’s demographics.
He put it to Joubert: “One of the sad issues which we have to confront in this particular case… is that coloured labour has always been preferred and protected in the Western Cape.”
Was Joubert familiar with the restriction on the freedom of movement for certain groups during apartheid, Moerane asked.
Was Joubert aware that Indians had not been allowed to live in the Orange Free State, something that would have had a “skewed” effect on the demographics of that region?
“If you were to adopt an affirmative action policy based on the current distribution of Indian people in the Free State – you’d never employ Indian people in the Free State… if you used provincial and not national stats, you would not employ Indians there.”
Joubert disagreed, saying if demographics were applied flexibly there would be a case for employing Indians.
Moerane said the constitution did not envisage a strategy where the government “deliberately perpetuates the demographic distribution” created by apartheid. “In fact, the constitution obliges the state to advance and protect the people discriminated against.”
The hearing continues on Thursday.
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
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