A new law to be introduced with the aim of increasing employment among blacks in South Africa has drawn criticism from some businesses and opposition parties in the country.
The new law requires companies with more than 50 employees to report how the staff reflects the demographics of the region in which they operate.
Critics of the law argue that it could lead to skilled workers losing their jobs. The government, for its part, has rejected the criticism and believes that the bill will not lead to lost jobs and only aims to promote diversity in the unequal country.
South Africa’s leading opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which has traditionally attracted mainly white voters, has called for a “mass protest” in Cape Town on Wednesday against what it calls the “racial quota” law. DA leader John Steenhuisen claims that 600,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs “because they have the ‘wrong’ skin color or live and work in the ‘wrong’ areas”.
Three decades after the end of apartheid in South Africa, the country is still characterized by great inequality. Almost one in two black South Africans were unemployed in the first three months of 2023, while unemployment was only 9.5 percent among whites, according to official figures.
The new law was signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April and is expected to come into effect in the coming months.