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Solidarity lifts lid on AA

Cape Town - A report on affirmative action released on Tuesday shows that white females have been hardest hit by the practice, despite recent claims that white women were the biggest beneficiaries.

The report - The Truth about Affirmative Action in South Africa - released by trade union Solidarity, states that white females' share of the labour market declined by 24% between 2001 and 2006, while that of white males as a whole declined by 16%.

Solidarity said on Tuesday its findings show that South Africa has progressed much further than is generally accepted.

The report shows that black male representation at top management level has grown by 55.9% from 2001-2006; at senior management level by 44% and at professional and mid-management levels by 44%.

Representation by white males declined by 22% at top management level, by 25% at senior management level and by 24% at professional and middle management level, according to the report.

Sapa reported last week that the Black Management Forum (BMF) said white women should be struck off a list of groups recognised as previously disadvantaged. This would help re-focus targeting people with disabilities, black people and in particular black women who were at the lowest end of their...target.

White women managers

Two months ago, Employment Equity Commission chairperson Jimmy Manyi accused white business of trying to conceal their un-transformed employment profile by employing more white women into management positions.

According to Manyi, white women held almost 15% of the executive positions in 4 380 companies surveyed.

Solidarity said its report also shows why the Employment Equity Commission's reports cannot serve as a basis for scientific deductions on employment equity in the country.

Despite their flawed scientific basis, the Employment Equity Commission's own reports show that South Africa is much further along the road to transformation than the Commission's own reports would suggest, said Solidarity.

Reporting the numbers

The Solidarity report shows that there are year on year variations of between 30% and 195% in the number of reports submitted by employers. Only about 28% - or approximately 1 540 out of an average of 5 478 reports - come from the same employers. This means that different years cannot be compared, since the data sets are so radically different.

In addition, the Employment Equity Commission's reports only cover approximately 9.28% of South African employees.

Solidarity also found that many black-dominated employers failed to submit employment equity reports, which skews the information regarding employment equity.

In 2005, 25 municipalities (including Tshwane and Johannesburg), 13 provincial departments and 19 national departments did not submit reports. Other institutions that did not submit reports include parliament and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Solidarity compiled its report from data from the Employment Equity Commission, the General Household Survey, a database of JSE directors, the South African Advertising Research Foundation studies on the black middle-class and reports by the Public Service Commission.

- Fin24/Sapa

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