The Democratic Alliance (DA) will oppose the latest proposed Employment Equity Code of Good Practice, saying it will place additional burdens on businesses and threaten job creation, according to the party’s spokesperson on employment and labour, Michael Bagraim.

He was referring to the Draft Reviewed Code of Good Practice on the Preparation and Implementation of the Employment Equity Plan, released in July and open for public comment until 20 September. This, in turn, was part of operationalising a 2022 Amendment to the Employment Equity Act (EEA), which placed extensive powers in the hands of the minister to enforce effective demographic quotas on firms with fines capable of putting firms deemed non-compliant out of business.

The erstwhile employment and labour minister, Thulas Nxesi, had made it clear that his department was determined to institute “harsh” measures against businesses in order to achieve the government’s desired racial and gender outcomes.

Bagraim said the DA was particularly concerned about the proposed implementation of Section 15A of the EEA, which the party is challenging in court. The DA points out that the provision gives the employment and labour minister powers to impose sectoral numerical targets on employers. It says, accurately, that these targets effectively amount to binding quotas and could expose companies to penalties of up to 10% of their turnover for non-compliance.

The DA also objects to the requirement that employers set annual targets according to predetermined demographic formulas. This fails to take account of economic conditions, skills shortages, and the specific demands of individual positions.

The party said employment decisions should instead be based on merit, competence, and the firms’ requirements.

The DA has also raised concerns about the impact of the proposed code on small and medium-sized businesses. It said additional compliance and reporting requirements could divert resources from core business activities and job creation.

“This red tape acts as a barrier to entry and growth,” Bagraim said.

The DA’s submission argues that consideration of the code should be deferred until the courts have ruled on the constitutionality of Section 15A.

The DA said its opposition was also motivated by South Africa’s high unemployment rate, which stands at a staggering 33.6%.

“Millions of South Africans wake up each day searching for work, worried about keeping the lights on and putting food on the table,” Bagraim said.

Bagraim said the party’s objective was to make it easier for businesses to operate and grow while creating more opportunities for South Africans to enter the labour market.

He added that the DA was calling on other South Africans to submit objections to the code.

The ratcheting-up of official demands for race-based staffing is only one of a number of measures inimical to economic growth implemented since President Cyril Ramaphosa assumed the presidency. They demonstrate clearly that employment policy – in a country with one of the highest rates of unemployment on Earth – remains doggedly defined by the “transformation” agenda to the exclusion of almost anything else. Add to this a failing skills pipeline, high minimum wages, and a generally adverse economic environment, and it should not be surprising that job creation is invariably disappointing.

Public opinion in South Africa, measured over decades by a number of institutions, has been consistent that unemployment is the central concern for the country’s people, and that meritocratic hiring is by an overwhelming margin the preferred position