This is according to the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi. Presenting a report on the status of workplace transformation together with the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), Nxesi said 65.5% of top management positions across different sectors are still occupied by the white minority. He further outlined that men occupy 76.5% of top management in government while their white male counterparts occupy 69.6 % of top positions in the private sector. The construction and the financial sectors are said to be two sectors indicating the slowest progress when it comes to transformation. The agriculture and mining sectors are counted amongst those whose senior positions are still white-male predominant. The Chairperson of the CEE, Tabea Kabinde, highlighted that of high concern is also the slow employment of persons with disabilities and how they only constitute 1.3% of those in top management.

Nxesi said it is concerning that the latest Employment Equity report released today is not much different to the one released last year, which also indicated a slow pace of transformation in South African workplaces.

The report released last year indicated that 67.7% of the top management positions were occupied by the white minority population followed by the Africa population at 14.3 %, Indian at 9.4%, and the coloured population with just over 5.1%.

In efforts to re-dress this, Nxesi said the government will now invoke section 53 of the Act, which will force businesses to have a compliance certificate before they could do any business with government, amongst other measures.

OFM News