Showdown over new race laws in South Africa

Business interest group Sakeliga and the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA) are adding to the opposition of the new Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) and its regulations.

They have called the laws “unconstitutional, impossible, and harmful,” adding that the “regulations herald perhaps the most sweeping racialisation of the labour market…threatening to destroy hundreds of billions of rand in economic value if diligently enforced.” 

This opposition is on top of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) legal action, which argues that “Section 15A (of the regulations) violates Section 9 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law and prohibits unfair discrimination.”

On 15 April 2025, the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) published the Employment Equity general administrative regulations, along with sectoral numerical targets.

The new section 15A introduces sectoral numerical targets, which are expected to come into effect in September 2025.

This section establishes specific racial and gender-based numerical targets for businesses across four occupational levels (junior, middle, senior, and top management) within 18 industries in South Africa, to be achieved over the next five years.

Each category includes three percentage targets: one for “designated groups” males (non-white), one for “designated groups” females (including white females), and one for “disability only.”

Able-bodied white males are not explicitly mentioned and are considered the remaining percentage after the designated groups are accounted for.

Despite setting specific percentages for racial representation, the government has refuted the definition of ‘quotas’, saying that these are flexible targets that businesses should work towards over five years.

The regulations also make provision for businesses to be exempt, through set justifications covered by the laws.

However, opponents insist the targets are quotas, which are unlawful.

The DA stated, “a law that forces employers to fire or refuse to hire people based on race, whether they are black, coloured, Indian, or white, is not redress. It is unconstitutional discrimination.”

Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux contended that “the new employment equity regulations aim to push white people in general, and white males in particular, out of jobs.”

The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) stated that these targets aim to ensure the “equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups at all occupational levels in the workforce.”

The department cited its 2024 employment equity report, which indicated that despite constituting 7.3% of the population, white workers held 62.1% of all top management positions.  

Sakeliga and NEASA view the EEAA and its regulations as “unconstitutional, unlawful, and harmful.”

The organisations announced their collaboration to oppose the government’s racial hiring quotas and have jointly agreed to:

• Launch immediate joint legal action, including seeking an interdict against the operation of the regulations, targets, and/or the act.
• Continue to oppose the EEAA and the hiring quotas until they are reversed or otherwise rendered null and void.

“Unconstitutional, impossible, and harmful”

Sakeliga and NEASA said that the sectoral targets constitute strict hiring quotas, based on race and other demographic ratios, which the state seeks to enforce under penalty of 10% of turnover.

“The state is acting unconstitutionally, because it makes totalitarian infringements on the freedom of businesses, owners, and employees to freely associate and trade,” said the two in a joint statement.

“Under the guise of ‘transformation’, the EEAA insists on a stifling stagnation – that first all commercial activity and later, by implication, social activity should be conducted strictly in specified racial and other demographic ratios.”

The groups argue that they are unrealistic because employee populations naturally vary across numerous factors.

They claim that such government intervention is harmful, damaging economic productivity and creating societal division while expanding state power inappropriately.

ANC response

The African National Congress (ANC) has described the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) court challenge against the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) as “anti-transformative.”

ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said that the court action is a “hatred for transformation.”

He said that the DA “are drifting from the spirit of the Government of National Unity and positioning themselves outside the project of nation-building and shared prosperity.”

“Transformation, equity, and diversity are not up for negotiations. We will not surrender to elitist apartheid nostalgia or legal posturing.”

Sakeliga and NEASA say that it is important for businesses to obtain proper employment law advice and assistance based on their individual business circumstances.

“Employers should seek to minimise their legal risks while protecting their businesses, employees, and clients as much as possible in the face of such unconstitutional, unimplementable, and harmful legislation.”

This requires careful and personalised advice, and NEASA said it will “assist businesses in protecting the integrity of their business autonomy, their workforce and long-term sustainability, which are threatened by these regulations and targets. “