The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) held a protest this week against exclusionary racial quotas in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.

The kernel of the dissatisfaction is that the municipality is applying quotes based on provincial demographics in a community that has a far larger proportion of racial minorities.

In a statement, the party said: “The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is forced to comply with the national government’s unfair race quota legislation, and the municipality’s employment policies further compound the unfair treatment of our residents by enforcing race quotas based on the demographics of the province and not the metro.”

The racial make-up of the Eastern Cape was estimated to be 85.7% black, 7.6% coloured, 5.6% white, and 0.5% Indian. But according to the 2022 Census, black people account for 62.7% of the city of Gqeberha’s population, coloured people for 19.2%, whites for 15.7%, and Indians for 1.2%.

“These statistics make it abundantly clear that this requirement to enforce provincial rather than municipal demographics severely prejudices the employment prospects of specifically coloured, white, and Indian people,” the statement continued.

The concerns had been sparked by the hiring of 111 workers to the city’s health service in September 2025, with appointments apparently having to be made according to the provincial requirements.

The DA has also submitted a motion in Council, which states that while the preference of the party would be to remove race as a consideration in hiring, as long as it is required by the Employment Equity Act, the municipality should demand the right to use municipal demographics. At present, “the Democratic Alliance contends that utilising any demographic other than municipal will have precisely the opposite outcome. It will be unfair and unjust.”

Employment equity demands have long been a political and social flashpoint. While survey evidence indicates that these measures are not popular with the population at large, they have become foundational governance assumptions within the African National Congress and in the state. Last year, new regulations would require employers to meet strict “targets” – quotas in all but name – on pain of stiff fines. This promises to be a disincentive to doing business and taking on new employees.

Even among those accepting the premise of demographic representivity, the standards for implementation have been contested. The large proportion of coloured people in the Western Cape, for example, has been a matter of contention regarding the employment of correctional services officers. Jimmy Manyi, who is now a MP for the uMhonto weSizwe Party, once, while serving as a government spokesman, in 2011 referred to an “over-supply” of coloured people in the province, suggesting they move elsewhere to find work.