Issued by Department of Labour
Midrand 6 April 2000
Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for this opportunity to address you at this conference on the challenges of developing black managers and executives. The Minister of Labour has asked me to convey to you his regret that he is unable to address you due to prior commitments. He also asked me to express his support for your conference.
ROOTS OF THE CRISIS
While it has become unpopular in certain quarters to refer to less flattering aspects of our history, I am going to do just that in my introduction, because it is this history that continues to weigh heavily on our social fabric and it is this history which has a direct bearing on the topic which we are today addressing.
The shortage of black managers and in fact, of managerial skills and talents in general, is the result of apartheid social engineering. It is the logical outcome of a conscious and deliberate policy which sought to prevent and even criminalize the advancement of black people.
We all know the Verwoerdian ideology behind bantu education which stated explicitly that black children should not expect to rise above a station in life which condemned them to remain "hewers of wood and drawers of water".
The Bantu education system was specifically designed to suppress among the majority of the country's people, the enquiring mind, the creativity, the ambition and the other attributes and talents required of leaders, innovators and managers. Its explicit purpose was to condemn black people to menial labour.
It is therefore no accident of history that there is today a shortage of skills in South Africa, and more specifically a shortage of black managers and executives. Regardless of size, industry or financial health, the majority of organisations in the public, private and NGO sector face a serious shortage of quality leadership, including managers.
Research by the Department of Labour reveals that black employees still make up a very small percentage of the management, professional and technical occupational categories. Only 6% of senior managers are Africans, while less than 13% of junior and middle managers are African. The picture is even more bleak when we look at extent to which African women have been systematically prevented from gaining access to management positions. African women senior managers constitute a mere 1 %.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS
Since 1994, government has launched major initiatives to reverse this legacy and to give effect to the constitutional right to equality and freedom from discrimination.
I wish to address the direct interventions government has made within the labour market, in particular, through the Employment Equity and Skills Development legislation.
These two pieces of legislation, which are key pillars of the labour market legislative framework introduced in government's first term of office, are aimed at addressing both social and economic imperatives.
They are based on the assumption that the removal of discriminatory legislation alone would not correct the imbalances of the past and ensure the human resource development required to underpin political democracy and economic growth. They are active labour market policies designed to direct the behaviour of labour market actors.
THE EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT
The Employment Equity Act has two major aims. Firstly, it outlaws within the workplace, unfair discrimination based on race, gender, disability, and a number of other grounds. Secondly, it requires employers to take active steps to promote equity in the workplace - affirmative action - to ensure that the human resource potential of all our country's people can be tapped to the benefit of our economy and our society.
I am aware of the fact that there is an ongoing debate among black managers, intellectuals and professionals on the issue of affirmative action, with some resenting the inference that their achievements or top positions are the result of affirmative action as opposed to their own personal efforts and sacrifices. While I do not here wish to deal with this debate, I do wish to clarify the approach which government has adopted in this regard.
In 1991 a celebrated and highly respected icon of the liberation struggle who was soon to become first president of a democratic South Africa, said about affirmative action:
"The primary aims of affirmative action must be to redress the imbalances created by apartheid. We are not… asking for handouts for anyone, nor are we saying that just as a white skin was a passport to privileges in the past, so a black skin should be the basis of privilege in the future. Nor… is it our aim to do away with qualifications."What we are against is not the upholding of standards as such but the sustaining of the barriers to the attainment of standards; the special measures that we envisage to overcome the legacy of past discrimination are not intended to ensure the advancement of unqualified persons, but to see to it that those who have been denied access to qualifications in the past can become qualified now, and that those who have been qualified all along but were overlooked because of past discrimination, are at last given their due. The first point to be made is that affirmative action must be rooted in principles of justice and equality."
The reality is that in a country such as ours where particularly racial and sexual discrimination is deeply entrenched, legislating against discrimination alone will not ensure equal access to employment and to promotion in employment.
Neither will it ensure that our workplaces are places free of barriers which prevent all our people from realizing their true potential or places in which diversity is an asset.
It is for this reason that certain designated employers are obliged by the Act to take affirmative action measures to ensure that their work forces are more representative of all our people, that black people and women are able to penetrate the glass ceiling of senior management and that black people, women and people with disabilities are able to contribute to and determine the culture in our enterprises.
The Act does not prescribe what employers and employees must do and not do to implement employment equity. It acknowledges that each workplace is different and faces different circumstances.
Instead the Act sets out the process that designated employers need to embark upon to draft an employment equity plan and requires employers to report to the Department on what the existing situation in their workplaces is and what steps they have taken to introduce implement equity. In subsequent reports employers will need to report on progress achieved in respect of employment equity.
The Department of Labour would like to see employers and employees implementing equity, not only because it is law but also because it makes good business sense.
Having archived what many describe as a political miracle, the challenge facing our country now is to perform an economic miracle. As our president indicated in his state of the nation address, the economic indicators are positive. But our major challenge remains to attract more investment, improve productivity and create jobs.
A major obstacle to economic growth, productivity, competitiveness and investment attraction is the country's low skills base. To complement the Employment Equity Act, the Skills Development and Skills Development Levies Acts have recently been introduced to boost investment in skills and ensure that we are able to produce the skills necessary to drive growth and development.
The skills development strategy complements employment equity in that affirmative action on its own will not ensure that black people or black managers have the necessary skills and access to training that will enable them to access better opportunities and realize their full potential.
Unlike other countries, we do not have a strong enough culture of investing in people and processes of recruitment, development and fruition. This is required in addition to addressing the inadequacies of our previous educational and skill systems. Ireland was able to turn their country around partly by ensuring that each and every social partner focused on education and training.
In our country, however, all too often workers are regarded as an "unavoidable cost".
CHALLENGE TO ACTION
We regard the Employment Equity Act as a mechanism or a catalyst to enable the employment and promotion of black people, women and people with disabilities.
However, the Act or any legislation is no more than a mechanism to promote or ensure certain changes in the composition and nature of our workforce. But what changes happen and how to ensure that the changes have a positive impact on employment, on the individual employees concerned; and on the enterprise is something that can only be accomplished by people like yourselves.
For those of you who are not yet familiar with the Act, we have produced a Code and a User's Guide booklet which are obtainable through the Department of Labour, including on our website.
I would now like to raise a number of strategies that can be utilized by both companies and black managers to ensure the development of black managerial talent and leadership. We are hoping in the course of this year to incorporate some of these strategies in a Code of Good Practice on human resource policies and practices that promote employment equity.
Firstly, in line with the requirement of the Act, you need to undertake an honest and extensive audit and analysis of existing employment policies and practices. Many companies assume that if they correct their recruitment policies all is fine. Discrimination in companies goes deeper and is often more subtle. Companies need to look at their benefit policies particularly in relation to women. They need to critically look at cultural issues as well as other barriers that alienate and marginalize a lot of black people and women.
Secondly, companies need to make sure that their good policies are implemented in practice. The corporate head office may approve good policies, but what happens down the line; what happens in smaller plants or work places in more remote parts of the country? This is why the Act's requirements of consultation with employees, monitoring of plans and the appointment of a designated manager is so important. These institutions can check on an ongoing basis that the plans are worth more than the paper that they are printed on.
Thirdly, companies need to pay equal attention to recruitment, retention and advancement. Most companies only focus on recruitment and then they wonder why they lose black managers. Retention means that the organizational culture must be one that recognizes and values diversity as well as assists and accommodates people from designated groups.
Particular strategies also need to be in place to ensure the advancement of employees. An employee who does not witness possibilities of advancement will look for greener pastures. Such strategies should include rotational development and exposure to new and strategic business areas.
Fourthly, there is only one sustainable way of avoiding the so-called 'tokenism' and that is by ensuring that each and every employee has access to skill development programs. A cleaner must be trained to become a secretary, a bookkeeper, computer programmer, marketing co-coordinator etc.
All of us as black managers have suffered and faced many constraints. I am sure each of you has got a story to tell - a story of how you were or are patronized. Of how you put up with humiliation and being undermined, of how your professional competence is constantly under racist microscopic scrutiny.
As black managers, many of us face the challenge of disproving the myth that we are dumb, incompetent and lazy. This we cannot defend through speeches and debates but let our work speak for itself. We carry the burden of being pioneers. How can we best deal with this challenge?
Firstly, we have to have our own self-development plans and we need to interact with our organisations to ensure that the necessary resources and support is there for us to achieve our plans.
Secondly, we need to understand and then consciously impact on the organisation's culture and politics. It is no good only interacting at formal levels in any organisation. All organisations have networks and informal procedures and protocols. This is where discrimination is often most pervasive. Decisions are more often made on golf courses and pubs than boardrooms - even in gents.
Thirdly, we need to assume responsibility for the advancement of staff at all levels. We need to pay particular attention to the advancement of black people, women and people with disabilities. We should not adopt an attitude that being the only black is an achievement.
Fourthly, we need to challenge and be seen to be challenging underperformance. This is no longer an era where positions were created for sons and daughters of cousins and nieces. Nor can this be an era of tokenism so that an organisation can be seen to have a 'black face'.
Finally, as pioneers we need to interact with each other and share experiences.
CONCLUSION
Ladies and gentlemen, in the same way that we have fought and conquered the institutionalized form of apartheid, in the same way that we turned around what prophets of doom had prognosticated would be the bloodiest revolution into a negotiated settlement with a reasonably smooth transition, we shall turn our adversity into opportunity; we shall turn our crises into a challenge that requires us to work together in partnership. Let us be a nation intent on growing our economy, creating jobs and the eradication of poverty.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT!
VICTORY IS CERTAIN
THANK YOU