Carrot & Stick: Affirmative Action In South Africa
DiversityInc, January/February,
2006
“U.S. companies adjust to regulation by a government that surpasses their own in its determination to redress social inequities.” Whereas previously under apartheid the movement of blacks were severely restricted by law and land laws housed them in remote townships making travel to obtain work nearly impossible. Few black faces were seen in businesses and fewer still in globalized companies who had outsourced services to South Africa. All that is currently changing under Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations, South Africa’s version of affirmative action. BEE establishes tough hiring quotas and timelines for increasing black and female
employees within businesses. Although BEE is technically voluntary, companies that refuse to take part are unable to compete for government contracts or funding. The government rates compliance on a 0 to 100 point scale ranking companies from A to E, A being the highest based on their scores.
While no one argues the necessity of such affirmative action policies in establishing social, political and economic equity within the country few are satisfied with the current system. White male workers often complain that they are now being discriminated against, with businesses being shut out of the overall market unless they receive rankings of at least a B-. Black and female workers respond that nationally black
representation in management positions increased only 8.2 percent and female representation increased 4.6 percent while black representation in top management actually decreased by 1.3 percent and female representation slowed to 2.2 percent between 2001 and 2003.
Conflicts between employees of different races are often seen in alternative managerial approaches. Differing cultural interaction styles and social manners frequently create disharmony among workers and between executives and employees. Learning not to just tolerate the variety of cultural and ethnic differences that exist, but to accept and ultimately appreciate the wide diversity that exists in South Africa will be important as the country moves to decrease discriminatory unemployment practices in the coming years.