ANC deems DA's Employment Equity Act legal challenge an assault on transformation
The party launched the application in 2023 with regulations under the act published last month, setting sectoral quotas for designated race groups, which the party says are discriminatory.
ANC Parliamentary Chief Whip Mdumiseni Ntuli. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - Just as it appeared the dust may be settling over the rift the budget has caused within the Government of National Unity (GNU), tensions are set to escalate again this week as the Democratic Alliance (DA) goes to court on Tuesday over the Employment Equity Amendment Act.
The party launched the application in 2023 with regulations under the act published last month, setting sectoral quotas for designated race groups, which the party says are discriminatory.
The case has already upset the ANC’s parliamentary caucus, which continues to pressure the party’s leadership to boot the DA from the coalition once and for all.
From the National Health Insurance Act, the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, the Expropriation Act and now the Employment Equity Amendment Act, legislation passed before the Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed.
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However, all the laws contain fundamental differences that the DA is not prepared to let go of, for the sake of the partnership.
Having just pressed the reset button on the GNU following the budget impasse, its two-year-old case on employment equity is the latest matter to rock the GNU boat.
In a series of posts on social platform X, the African National Congress (ANC)’s chief whip, Mdumiseni Ntuli, says the DA’s case is an assault on transformation and the continued exclusion of black people from the economy.
He says his party can’t remain silent while the DA attempts to reverse transformation laws.
In another post, Ntuli wrote: “We are grappling with the lessons, but the truth is that the DA has not changed at all.”
He further said the party will be forced to go to court and respond to the DA regarding this latest matter.
Ntuli added that his party believed recent developments would have changed the DA, but the situation remains the same, if not getting worse.
“Terrible relationship this one. These people never change,” reads another of Ntuli’s posts.
On Monday, the DA will hold a media briefing to outline what it believes are the merits of its case against the Employment Equity Act.