The Labour Court also ruled that he SAPS may not make any appointments based on race and gender until the Constitutional Court decides on this matter.

The Labour Court in Johannesburg granted an urgent application by Solidarity to temporarily suspend the South African Police Service’s new Employment Equity Plan. In terms of the interdict the SAPS’s new Employment Equity Plan, which would apply to the period from 2015 to 2019, has been suspended until the Constitutional Court gives judgment in the matter between the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and Solidarity.

“The court has clearly drawn a line in the sand as far as affirmative action is concerned. Government’s affirmative action strategy will have to be revisited in its totality,” Solidarity Chief Executive Dirk Hermann said.

In terms of the Labour Court’s judgment the SAPS may not make any appointment or promotion based on the principles as contained in the 2015-2019 Employment Equity Plan.

Moreover, the SAPS may not make appointments or promotions based on race or gender in terms the National Police Commissioner’s National Instruction No 3 of 2015 or any other instruction stipulating that the national demographics must be decisive when making appointments or promotions.

The interdict does not prohibit all promotions and appointments; only those that would have been made in terms of the Employment Equity Plan.

On 26 January 2016 the Labour Court ruled that SAPS’s previous Employment Equity Plan was invalid and unconstitutional.

“Despite the judgment the SAPS continued with its new plan based on the very same unconstitutional principles. The interdict prohibits the SAPS from carrying on with its unfair racial practices. Should the SAPS continue to do so it would amount to contempt of court, which would expose the National Police Commissioner to criminal liability – an option we certainly may consider should they continue to do so,” Hermann said.

In total, 5 000 posts had been advertised in terms of the employment equity plan that has now been suspended by the court. Those posts may therefore not be filled until judgment has been given in the DCS case.

As was the case with the Police’s previous Employment Equity Plan, which has already been declared invalid, the plan for 2015-2019 amounts to a quota system. We are most disappointed that the SAPS continues with practices that have already been declared invalid. The interdict does, however, put Solidarity in a strong position to take further action.

The judgment follows shortly on the heels of news reports that the SAPS had issued an instruction that no coloured or white person may be promoted in the Western Cape during this round of promotions. According to the judgment, this instruction in the Western Cape, too, may not be carried out any more.