‘C-suites are still too white’

CEE says whites and Indians have too many of the top jobs in the private sector

● The government’s latest workplace transformation report has found that more than a quarter of private sector employers are not investing in meaningful training and development, and more than 20% do not have clear succession plans for the advancement of African, coloured and women employees to top, senior and middle management levels.

According to the annual report of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), released this week, many private sector employers have yet to clear away barriers to transformation at top management levels, 24 years after the enactment of the Employment Equity Act and the Skills Development Act.

White men accounted for 63.2% in top management positions, down from 64.7% a year earlier; Africans occupied 17% compared with 15.8% in 2020; Indians accounted for 10.9% from 10.6% in 2020; and coloureds made up 5.9% from 5.7% in 2020, the report said.

White people also had the highest representation at all management levels — 51.4% — while Africans were at 25.6%, Indians at 12% and coloureds at 8%. Men dominated senior management levels at 63.6% compared with women at 36.4%. This is a slight improvement from 2020 when women representation was at 35.7%. Representation of people with disabilities remained unchanged over the past three years, at 1.3%.

The report analysed SAs ’ workforce by population group, gender and disability at six levels: top management, senior management, professionally qualified/middle management, skilled technical/junior management, semi-skilled and unskilled.

The CEE concluded that whites and Indians were overrepresented at top management level in relation to their economically active population (EAP) levels — a measure of people aged 15 to 64 who either have jobs or are unemployed but looking for work.

The CEE noted that in the public service, African representation was almost in line with the EAP level, while in the private service the number of Africans employed at senior management level was nearly six times below the EAP figure.

The commission took issue with what it described as the “high” proportion of foreign nationals at top management level (3%) and at semi-skilled level in the private sector.

“Foreign nationals at the semi-skilled level remained above 2% over the past three years; a trend which is concerning given that this is an entry occupational level that could be occupied by South African nationals, particularly graduates who are currently experiencing a high rate of unemployment,” the commission noted.

Commission chair Tabea Kabinde said resistance to change in private sector boardrooms was undermining transformation. “There are elements of fear, resistance and of not understanding or even buying into the transformation agenda.”

Kabinde said employers indicated that they were keen to employ people in designated groups but could not find black people, women or people with disabilities who had the skills they were looking for.

“For some employers it is really not understanding what the transformation agenda is about, and not feeling that they can buy into it because they do not understand it.”

Of further concern to the commission was that 10.8% of employers reported disparities in pay, benefits, job classification and conditions of employment between races.

“This is disturbing given the fact that all employers are required to eliminate all unfair discriminatory policies and practices in relation to job classifications and grading systems, remuneration and benefits packages, including in the terms and conditions of employment, to be able to apply the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in their workforce,” the commission said.

It said this was why the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration received 359 referrals linked to “equal pay for equal value on arbitrary grounds” between April 1 2021 and January 31 this year.

Kabinde said: “I would not be too concerned about the 10.8%, because the 10.8% are people who are being honest. If they were honest we would not be having the problems that we have. I applaud the employers who acknowledge the barriers, for example in terms of equal pay, [but] I believe the bulk of the employers do not acknowledge the barriers.”

Kganki Matabane, CEO of the Black Business Council, said the private sector was not serious about transformation at senior management levels.

“If you look at the level below the CEO you are going to find that black people are

There are elements of fear, resistance and of not understanding or buying into the transformation agenda

— Tabea Kabinde, Commission for Employment Equity chair

not given positions of authority, they are given positions that are called soft; they are not given core positions to the business. They have compliance as box-ticking exercises.”

He blamed the government for failure to enforce compliance with the law.

“They [government officials] have all the powers through legislation … They should introduce penalties to companies that are not complying. If you charge 10% of turnover, that is a lot of money.

“We are saying the government must utilise the instruments it has available, which is legislation to effect changes, otherwise the minister of employment & labour will complain every year, like all of us, and do nothing the following year. They don’t use the power and instruments they have,” Matabane said.

Minister of employment & labour Thulas Nxesi described the report as reflecting a

sorry state of affairs. “If we are serious about transformation we should not be begging now. The time has now come to get hard on noncompliance.”

Nxesi said there was a need to push hard for transformation. “If we do not do it now we will see the status quo prevailing for the next 100 years.”

He said the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, currently before parliament, will be a game-changer. “It cannot be business as usual while our people compete for space in the labour market.”

Among other things the bill will require companies that do business with the state to comply with employment equity requirements and the national minimum wage.

Cas Coovadia, CEO of Business Unity SA, said business was in constant engagement with the department of employment & labour about issues of equity.

“I think the critical issue is that we need to get to the bottom of why these figures do not change. Essentially, particularly at top and middle management positions, is it a question of skills?

“We need to develop these skills, particularly the black African population. We as business and government need to work more closely together and get to the real root causes of why the employment figures remain skewed, and work together to try to address these.”

Coovadia said the figures were worrying. “We are not having the right conversations and are not collaborating effectively to try to get to the bottom of the causes. We would like to continue to find the root cause which has to do with education, skills, capacity, and all these things.”

Asief Mohamed, chief investment officer at Aeon Investment Management, said the department of employment & labour was still doing “our mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and nieces a disservice” by setting a transformation target for women of 45%, when it should be 50%.

“The reason targets have not been achieved is that nearly 30 years into our democracy there have not been sufficient consequences for not achieving the low targets,” he said.

“What may help is the requirement of an employment equity certificate of compliance for all large entities in South Africa. However, to encourage greater inclusion, all large entities should also ensure that they obtain compliance certificates from their supply chains and achieve minimum thresholds in line with population demographics.”