Affirmative Action and the Perpetuation of Racial Identities in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Introductory Remarks on Nation-Building and Racial Identity
Historic Objective of Post-Apartheid South Africa: Building a nation and promoting national unity, aiming to shape a new historical community.
Associated Issues: Class leadership and content of nationalism, social cohesion, multicultural polity understanding, and intercultural communication.
Salience of Racial Faultline: The continued prominence of racial divisions in South Africa necessitates a focus on racial identities and how to address them.
Trigger for Debate: Minister Mosiuoa Lekota's comments on non-racialism two years prior (before 2006) highlighted the problematic link between affirmative action (AA) and the perpetuation of racial identities.
Unintended Consequence: The perpetuation of racial identities is an unintended outcome of affirmative action, assuming the policy's architects had good intentions.
Call for Debate: The vital importance of this subject for consolidating and deepening South Africa's democratic polity means Lekota's comments should spark a national discussion on the meaning of a non-racial, democratic South Africa.
Genocidal Potential: Racialised identities, as seen in Nazi Germany, Rwanda, and other contexts, possess the potential for genocide.
Origin of Lecture: This text is an edited version of a lecture delivered at the East London Campus, University of Fort Hare, on March 25, 2006.
Social Identities, Race, and Affirmative Action Policy
Construction of Identities: In social sciences, it's widely accepted that social and individual identities are constructed, not inherently 'given'.
State's Role in Identity Formation: The state, or ruling classes, holds the prerogative to establish the template for social identities, including racial ones.
Contestation and Acceptance: Subaltern groups either contest or accept these imposed identities over time, e.g., categories like 'Bantu' and 'Coloured'.
Tenacity of Identities: While constructed, social identities appear to have a primordial validity for most individuals because they are unaware of the historical, social, and political processes of their construction. This explains their strong persistence.
Deconstruction Potential: Social identities can be deconstructed and reshaped, evidenced by the unravelling of the 'Afrikaner' identity.
Race as Social Reality: At the beginning of the 21^{\text{st}} century, 'race' is acknowledged as not a valid biological entity but is undeniably a social reality.
South Africa's Legacy: Segregationist and apartheid South Africa was globally known as a racist society, leading to worldwide hope with its demise.
Dream of a Raceless Society: Many still hope post-apartheid South Africa will demonstrate the possibility of a raceless, and perhaps even classless, society.
Affirmative Action (AA) - A Sensitive Issue: AA (also called 'levelling the playing fields' or 'representiveness') is highly sensitive due to its unintended consequences, not because its intentions are wrong.
Policy Development: It involved an elaborate public consultation process, culminating in key legislation: the Public Services Act, Employment Equity Act, Skills Development Act, and Skills Development Levy Act.
Core Purpose of Legislation: These laws laudably aim for the redistribution of economic, social, cultural, and political power and resources, which was the fundamental goal of the struggle against racial capitalism and apartheid.
Broad Support: The vast majority of people support these objectives; only reactionaries and conservatives oppose them.
Critique of Affirmative Action Implementation and the Employment Equity Act (EEA)
Beneficiaries of AA as Implemented: The author argues that, in practice, AA primarily benefits the rising black middle class, thereby deepening inherited class inequality.
Lekota's Core Concern: Minister Lekota's intervention focused on the perpetuation of racial identities through the irresponsible public discourse of political and cultural role models. They unproblematically refer to 'Blacks', 'Coloureds', 'Indians', and 'Whites', consciously or unconsciously entrenching apartheid racial categories and prejudice.
Embedding Racial Discourse: This problematic discourse is embedded within the legislation and the social practices and inter-group dynamics it generates or reinforces.
Employment Equity Act (EEA) - Act No. 55 of 1998:
Purpose (Section 2):
(a) To promote equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment by eliminating unfair discrimination.
(b) To implement affirmative action measures to redress employment disadvantages faced by 'designated groups' to ensure their equitable representation across all occupational categories and levels.
Definitions (Section 1):
'designated groups' refers to black people, women, and people with disabilities.
'black people' is a generic term encompassing Africans, Coloureds, and Indians.
Exclusions: The EEA does not apply to members of the South African National Defence Force, the National Intelligence Agency, or the South African Secret Service, as they are not defined as 'employees' under the Labour Relations Act.
Practical Discrepancy: In practice, the distinction between 'African', 'Coloured', and 'Indian' is consistently maintained, often leading to the generic 'black people' term being used only when convenient.
Note 2 Example: Towards the end of 2004, a dispute erupted over the composition of the Springbok rugby team, with accusations that 'African' players were overlooked in favour of 'Coloureds' who were deemed 'not really black'.
Affirmative Action vs. Transformation and Economic Implications
Distinction: 'Affirmative action measures' within the EEA aim to ensure suitably qualified people from designated groups have equal opportunities and equitable representation. However, AA is an aspect of transformation, not the whole.
Transformation's Necessity: South Africa requires far-reaching 'transformation measures' to achieve fundamental social change or 'normality'.
Critique by Professor Sampie Terblanche (2002): Although the EEA and related laws addressed apartheid's legacy in the workplace:
They primarily benefited the aspirant African petit bourgeois (those with jobs and union membership).
They increased labor costs and negatively impacted economic growth potential.
Implication of Terblanche's Statement: Structural economic and social change (true transformation) is crucial to enable most black people to benefit from AA.
Unemployment Priority: With a real unemployment rate of approximately 50\%
Job creation, reliant on structural changes, is the priority.
Misleading Government Claims: It's disingenuous for government to present the creation of a few thousand jobs or houses as examples of 'affirmative action' or 'black empowerment'.
Meaning of AA: Affirmative action is only truly meaningful in contexts where individuals are similarly qualified or skilled, and preference is given to those from 'designated groups'.
Support for AA Principle: Only the 'loony right' opposes the principle of affirmative action when considered as part of a broader strategy for historical redress.
Challenges in Empowerment Strategies and the Skills Gap
Legacy of Racist Policies: Even after ten years of freedom, South Africa faces a small pool of skilled labour and a high percentage of 'virtually untrainable people' due to apartheid-era Bantu and tribalised education policies.
Priority for Empowerment: Given these conditions, any empowerment strategy should prioritize education and skills training.
Legislation for Skills: Legislation to this effect (Skills Development Act of 1998, Skills Development Levies Act of 1999) has been in place since the late 1990s.
Limited Progress: Unfortunately, very little progress has been made in this area.
Failure of SETAs: In 2004, the Department of Labour overhauled Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), institutions designed to facilitate skills training, because they had been a