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Solidarity has filed an urgent complaint with a United Nations (UN) agency regarding the South African government’s breach of the terms of its agreement with Solidarity on race laws.

This race law settlement was reached in June 2023 under the supervision of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and was further ratified by a court order in October of that year.

Solidarity has already charged the Minister of Labour and Employment, Nomakhosazana Meth, with contempt of court in relation to the court order, but will now also request intervention from the ILO to ensure that the settlement is honoured. 

This follows Minister Meth’s publication of employment equity regulations and associated sectoral targets or workplace quotas in the Government Gazette in April this year. Solidarity argues that the publication of these regulations and sectoral targets in April 2025 contradicts the 2023 settlement, as it fails to reflect, among other things, that:

•    affirmative action must be implemented in a nuanced manner;
•    various factors other than race must be taken into account in employment equity plans; and
•    no retrenchments may occur as a result of affirmative action.

According to Anton van der Bijl, Solidarity’s deputy chief executive, the government’s actions are reprehensible.

“Our authorities always have a lot to say about the abuse of human rights while they themselves are guilty of it. Now, even expecting the government to respect signed international treaties, and the settlements concluded under them, is too much to ask.

“We call on the ILO to urgently intervene in the racial abuses taking place in South Africa,” says Van der Bijl.

This marks the next step in Solidarity’s campaign against the race madness of the South African government. Solidarity recently announced the establishment of a R7 million legal fund aimed at intensifying pressure – both locally and internationally – to bring an end to the current racial dispensation that is bringing South Africa and all South Africans to their knees.

This is especially important in a year when the eyes of the world are on South Africa as it prepares to host the G20 Summit in November.

Issued by Solidarity