Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
14 November
Statement by Prof Kader Asmal, MP, Minister of Water Affairs & Forestry, at the media launch of the Employment Equity Policy of the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry. Residensie Building, 185 Schoeman Street, Pretoria, at 13:00 on 14 November 1995.
Today we release an employment equity policy to guide our Department towards the next century. It is unique in its comprehensiveness and in the all-inclusive process that led to it.
In any transformation, policy is critical. Corrective action without a sound policy basis is futile, even dangerous. It can lead to ill-considered initiatives.
In our case, we cultivated the active involvement of all role- players. The departure point for discussion was that transformation is the joint responsibility of the Ministry, the Department, the Public Service and every one of our employees.
Key role-players were identified from all ranks of the Department, and they took part on an equal footing, which means that each had the same opportunity to design the policy to meet a declared self-interest.
The process was open and transparent. Any concerns could be freely and openly expressed. All forms of patronage, special lobbying and influence "from above" were declared improper.
The policy embodies the spirit and requirements of the Constitution, considering corrective action, representivity and the spirit of the new, democratic South Africa. It therefore serves the national interest.
The aim of the process was simple: to ensure that employees take control of their own destiny, and correct the effects of an unjust past. In this, they could more effectively equip themselves for the historic tasks of the Department in the new order, such as the provision of water to those historically denied it and the organisation of water as a national resource.
We have, in effect, produced a social contract, made binding not through compulsion from above but through the active involvement of all concerned.
The policy rests on the key concepts of fundamental equality, corrective action and participative management. Indeed, there is a fundamental break with attitudes that were all too prevalent in the past: racism, patronage, sexism, cronyism, command and control managerial style.
Corrective action requires the removal of illegitimate distinctions in conditions of service and employment practices whether directly or indirectly based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.
Central to the policy is the establishment of an Employment Equity Committee which is the driving force behind implementation of policy. Among many wide responsibilities, it is charged to oversee, promote, monitor and evaluate implementation. An annexure on Representivity sets out conditions, for instance:
"... a previously excluded person may be preferred above others in any unrepresentative occupational class or classification, provided that there is compliance with the overriding principles of fundamental equality of opportunity and corrective action."
Corrective measures include a recruitment programme targeting previously excluded persons; initiation of new bursary schemes and reallocation of existing bursary resources; education, training and development programmes to foster promotion and advancement of previously excluded persons; and, in the event that the qualified previously excluded persons are not available, appointments on a fixed term of short duration which training efforts are intensified in that area.
"Previously excluded person" is defined as one "who, on the basis of group identity, was formally and systematically deprived of rights, career opportunities, training or job advancement under the system of apartheid or as a result of its continuing effects".
The policy envisages numerical goals (but not rigid quotas) for the employment, training and promotion of previously excluded groups.
Employment equity is an important element of a broader endeavour to transform the Department characterised by a new management structure, a human resource development plan and a process designed to realign the Department to meet a new mission.
It would be futile simply to fashion a new organogram and then to declare problems solved. It would not, of itself, produce an efficient and effective Department. It would not change bad practices. Hence our concern not to make changes that are merely cosmetic - distinctions without differences.
The employment equity policy is a cornerstone of our transformation, and I commend its provisions to you.