FF Plus, South Africa Today, June 6, 2018

There is still no sign that Affirmative Action (AA) will let up, despite the fact that demographic targets in the civil service have already been reached and that white people, in particular, are being forced out of the state’s workforce and have already been underrepresented for quite some time now.

From the answers provided by the Minister of Civil Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, in response to a written question by the FF Plus, it can be gleaned that all the population groups’ position in the public labour market has improved over the last few years, except for white people’s.

Black people, who made up 79,2% of the population according to the last census, are overrepresented in the civil service with 2,2% at 81, 4%.

White people, with a representation of 7,5% in the civil service are currently 1,4% underrepresented (white people made up 8,9% of the population in the last census). A mere four years ago, white people’s representation in the civil service was 8,8%. The decrease of 1,3% goes to show that white people are fast being forced out of the state’s workforce.

Coloured people are underrepresented with 0,3%, although their position did improve slightly over the last four years. Indian people are right on target with 2,5%.

The oppression of white and coloured people is unacceptable. Clearly the targets for restitution in the public sector have long been reached and what is happening now is reverse racism.

Because South Africa’s Constitution stipulates that there should be equal representation, the state is legally obliged to do away with Affirmative Action (AA) and to make restitution for disadvantaging white and coloured people.

Section 195(1)(i) of the Constitution makes it very clear that the civil service must, in broad terms, be representative of South Africa’s population. This target has already been achieved and then exceeded.

What the government is doing is in contravention of Section 1(4) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which stipulates that as soon as an affirmative action target has been reached, it must no longer be enforced.

It cannot go on like this. The FF Plus will address a formal letter to the CERD committee and request legal advice. If the CERD agrees with the FF Plus, the party will request that formal action must be taken against the ANC government so that the discrimination can come to an end.