The Employment Equity Commission interpreted figures on transformation "incorrectly", trade union Solidarity said last week.
"The commission interprets its own figures incorrectly by using the racial composition of the economically active population as the only yardstick for racial transformation," said Solidarity's senior economic researcher Paul Joubert.
The report, released in Parliament showed that blacks were currently represented by an even smaller percentage in top management than last year -- 18.5%, compared with 18.8%.
Whites made up 65.4% of top management positions, a slight decline from 68.1% the previous year.
The decline was attributed to a small increase in the representation of coloureds from 3.9% to 4.8%, Indians from 6.1% to 7.5% and foreigners from 3.1% to 3.9%.
The figures did not reflect the overall population profile of South Africa.
Blacks constituted 78.9% of the population, whites 9.6%, coloureds 9.1% and Indians 2.9%.
Joubert said according to the report, 43.9% of employees at senior management level were white men and that 39.5% of appointments and 30.1% of promotions at that level were also white men.
"In reality, the figures suggest that white men's position at senior management level is decreasing steadily. This decrease can also be seen when the current figures are compared with the previous reports' figures."
Joubert rejected criticism that white employees dominated the top and senior management positions in companies.
"Solidarity is disappointed that the commission does not even mention the most important reason, namely suitable qualifications, for the so-called 'white domination' at higher levels in the labour market."
Joubert said section 42 of the act stipulated that the pool of available people with suitable qualifications was an important consideration when compliance with the act was evaluated.
According to Statistics SA's 2007 community survey, about 50% of all people over the age of 20 who had a degree were white, he said.
Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge
