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Face reality about quotas - chamber

Cape Town - The fourteenth report of the Commission for Employment Equity is a disappointing and superficial document that will do little to promote the real development of the country’s human resources, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Tuesday.

“We want to see employment equity in the workplace and in management, but to achieve this we need to foster and develop the talents of our people," said Janine Myburgh, president of the chamber.

"The intention and spirit of employment equity is not simply to look at racial quotas of top-paying jobs, but to look at how we can develop our human resources as a nation."

The chamber is of the opinion that the commission is looking at the wrong things.

“What we should really be looking at is the future and how to bring on and develop the next generation of managers,” said Myburgh.

"The report itself was sloppy and was not properly checked. This could be seen in the 'highlights', which contained two versions of the same paragraph, while another paragraph was repeated."

Comparing figures

It also chose to compare figures for the number of managers in different race groups and genders with the figures for 2003.

"If it had made the comparison with last year’s figures a completely different picture would have emerged and 2013 would have been seen as the year when things went backwards," said Myburgh.

In virtually all categories the figures for 2013 were worse than those for 2012, but there is no explanation for this significant difference.

Instead the new report ignores the findings of its own previous report.

“Clearly something is wrong, but the commission seems to be more concerned about race and numbers rather than trying to understand what is happening in the work place,” said Myburgh.

She pointed out that the report of the government’s Ministerial Task Team had found in March 2012 that not a single Seta could demonstrate an improvement in economic performance in their sector, resulting from their interventions.

It could, therefore, be argued that the entire system should be dismantled.

“Skills development in this country is a massive failure and that is probably our biggest problem. It is time to stop thinking in quotas and deal with the real issues,” said Myburgh.

“When you look at the commissioners and their backgrounds it becomes clear that business was either not heard nor understood."

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