Transformation too slow says Pityana

"I believe the progress is very disappointing," he said at an Ahmed Kathrada Foundation conference held in Sandton, Johannesburg on Tuesday (8 October).

"Seventeen years on [from the introduction of transformation legislation] there is a tale of two cities," Pityana said.

He said these were the public sector, which had made greater gains, and the private sector, which he alleged was "vehemently resisting transformation'.

"I believe that business is somewhat lack-lustre in pursuing the vision we committed to," Pityana said.

He said the constitutional mandate of transformation was sometimes implemented in unconstitutional ways. Referring to a case where coloured workers challenged the Western Cape correctional services department's employment equity principles, which relied on national, rather than provincial, demographic profiles Pityana said: "Arguments about migrating people defies the fundamental thrust and principle [behind transformation policies].

Efficient labour market needed

"The intention behind these policies was not only moral, but also to create an efficient labour market. The local labour market had to be efficient to make the country globally competitive," he added.

He said the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) was a tool to help those who were out of work for short periods and not a welfare tool.

Pityana said there were problems with the retention of black professionals in the marketplace. "Some black professionals moved from one job to another because they found that their working environments undermined their self-esteem, and others did so purely in pursuit of higher salaries," he claimed.

Pityana said increasing calls for transformational quota systems needed to consider that this could occur at the expense of labour market efficiency.

"Proponents of quotas forget that job reservation and quotas are the same thing," he said. "Rather, the labour value chain, from education to promotion and staff retention, needed to be improved to achieve transformation."

He said the labour market could not afford to lose the skills of white people, even if it aimed to promote designated groups' interests.

"Affirmative action and employment equity [are] in some cases either used as blunt instruments of discrimination or conformitism," Pityana said.

"We are implementing affirmative action in South Africa, where the designated group is the majority. We must be careful it is not used as a blunt instrument, which discredits the intentions behind the policy," he added.

"As such, there needed to be a paradigm shift from one of transformational redress towards a non-racist and non-sexist society," he said.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge