A complaint against the South African government’s support of race quotas in employment matters has been laid with the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The complaint by trade union Solidarity was lodged on Wednesday in Geneva. It comes as a consequence of, among other things, Renate Barnard’s nine-year long battle against racial quotas in the South African Police Service (SAPS), a battle she eventually lost in the Constitutional Court. The Solidarity complaint also focuses on the South African government’s general use of racial quotas as measured against the national race demography.

Two of South Africa’s leading legal minds, advocates Martin Brassey (SC) and Greta Engelbrecht, assisted Solidarity in drafting a report outlining the complaint. The Solidarity deputation to Geneva met with UN officials, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), members of the European Parliament and other politicians in Europe to lobby support for their campaign against racial quotas.

“In total 572,582 members of the Solidarity Movement and other South Africans have signed a petition in support of Solidarity’s complaint. This is the largest petition against the South African government brought before an international body during the past 20 years. Solidarity has also created a special function on its web page www.solidarity.co.za for South Africans who want to ‘accompany’ the deputation,” Solidarity Chief Executive Dirk Hermann said.

In compiling the report, input was obtained from a wide variety of persons. Included are inputs from Herman Mashaba of the Free Market Foundation; well-known businessman Zandile Zungu; Theuns Eloff, Chairman of the F.W. De Klerk Foundation; Temba Nolutshungu, Director of the Free Market Foundation; Tony Leon, former leader of the Democratic Alliance; René Govender of the trade union confederation CONSAWU; Danny Titus in his personal capacity; and Paul Hofmann (SC) of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa.

“The wide variety of input we received enabled us to compile a report which truly reflects a substantial part of South African society. The report has transcended Solidarity. Those who support the complaint come from across racial boundaries. All South Africans are tired of being handicapped by load shedding while Eskom is intensifying its policy of race quotas. Ordinary South Africans want good value for their taxes. The best yardstick by which to measure affirmative action is not a state hospital with a black management but a hospital that has an efficient management, be it black or white,” Hermann said.

Solidarity is lodging its complaint in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. South Africa is a signatory and member state of the Convention and as such must report every two years on the country’s compliance with the convention.

Among other things, the convention stipulates that separate silos may not be created for various racial groups and that affirmative action may only be of a temporary nature. Civil organisations may submit a shadow report in response to a government’s report. The committee that acts as watchdog over the convention may then make recommendations to the member state which must be implemented and reported on.

According to Hermann, Solidarity had gone to court on several occasions with litigation against the South African government; it had petitioned Parliament on two amendments to legislation; and has more than once requested a parliamentary debate, but to no avail.