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Johannesburg - The latest Commission for Employment Equity's report on transformation in the labour market is disheartening, the ANC said on Friday.
"The figures... paint a disheartening picture of an extremely sluggish pace of transformation, with the Western Cape province being the most resistant to transformation," African National Congress spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said.
"The Western Cape’s conscious disregard of the laws of this country and the lack of understanding of the aspirations of our people do not surprise us as the Democratic Alliance continues to promote divisive and separate development in that province."
On Thursday the commission released its 13th edition report on transformation in the workplace. The report reflects the public and private sectors and shows whites still dominate top positions in the workplace.
Whites constituted 72.6% of top management positions in the country last year, down from 81.5% in 2002.
In the Western Cape, white men occupied 65.5% of top management positions in the province.
Black men only held 2.5% of top management position in the Western Cape, while their female counterparts made up 0.7% of that level of management.
Misrepresentations
Trade union Solidarity said the report contained misrepresentations about transformation in the labour market. Solidarity's research institute (SRI) believed the errors were the same as those made in previous years.
"[It] repeats... errors and misrepresentations of data that the SRI has pointed out in previous years," researcher Paul Joubert said.
The commission had used race as the only yardstick to measure transformation within the economically active population and ignored other factors.
This approach was not only one-sided, but also not aligned with Section 42 of the Employment Equity Act, he said.
"As in the past, the CEE also focuses mainly on slow racial transformation at the top management level, even though the 52 611 people at this level represent less than one percent of the total number of employees covered by the report."
The report shows that, throughout the country, blacks occupied 12.3% of top management positions in 2012, compared to 10% in 2002.
Coloureds occupied 4.6% of top management positions in 2012, compared to 3.4% in 2002; and Indians 7.3%, from 5%.
The number of foreigners in top management positions in 2012 was 3.1%, compared to zero in 2002. However, this was because the labour department started collecting this data only in 2006.
Commission chairperson Dr Loyiso Mzisi Mbabane expressed disappointment at the levels of transformation.
