Coloured employment in Western Cape takes centre stage

By Khanyisa Tabata
02 March 2011

The South African Institute of Race Relations says the government wants coloured people to move out of the Western Cape to find employment.

The institute’s Anthea Jeffery says the draft Employment Equity Bill will freeze the hiring of more coloured workers in the Western Cape. She says employers whose staff doesn’t comply with national demographics will be penalised with between 2 and 10 percent of annual turnover.

The institute responded to a comment by presidential spokesman Jimmy Manyi that there was an oversupply of coloured people in the Western Cape.

Jeffery says designated employers in the Western Cape seeking to avoid these fines will have to move as rapidly as possible towards a workforce that at all levels is 74% African and 11%.

Jeffery added that Though Manyi has been repudiated; if the bill goes ahead he will have the last laugh.