South African companies face a midnight deadline

Certain South African employers are required to submit their 2024 Employment Equity reports on Wednesday, 15 January 2025.

However, opposition to the law has created uncertainty about the number of businesses that will comply with the new legislation.

South Africa’s Employment and Labour Department reminded employers that the deadline to submit their 2024 Employment Equity reports is midnight on Wednesday, 15 January 2025.

The Employment Equity Act (EE) was enacted in 1998 as part of South Africa’s broader strategy to address the systemic inequalities of the apartheid era. 

The Act aims to promote equality in the workplace by eliminating unfair discrimination and achieving equitable representation of all demographic groups across all occupational levels.

This is done by requiring companies to implement affirmative action measures for historically disadvantaged groups.

In 2023, amendments to the Act were introduced to set stricter targets for workplace equity. They gave the Minister of Employment and Labour – who is currently Nomakhosazana Meth – more power to set sector-specific equity targets.

Companies that fail to meet targets or comply with reporting requirements face significant penalties, including exclusion from public procurement processes.

These amendments were met with severe backlash, including legal opposition from organisations like Sakeliga and Solidarity.

Critics of the legislation argue that it has led to “reverse discrimination”, marginalising qualified individuals from non-designated groups.

In addition, some have argued that the Act does not adequately address the root causes of unemployment, such as poor education and skills deficits.

Despite this opposition, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the proclamation notice in November 2024, setting 1 January 2025 as the start date for implementing the Employment Equity Amendment Act.

However, while the proclamation notice giving effect to the start date has been signed, employers are expected to use EE legislation that predates the 2022 amendments for the 2024 reporting period. 

The Employment Equity Amendment Act, No. 4 of 2022, was assented into law by the President on 6 April 2023 and published in the Government Gazette on 14 April 2023. 

Law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr explained that the main objectives of the latest EE Amendments include the following:

• To reduce the regulatory burden for small employers.
• To empower the minister to regulate sector-specific numerical EE targets.
• To promulgate Section 53 to enable the issuing of EE compliance certificates as a prerequisite for access to contracts for doing business with any organ of the state.

Despite the amendments now signed into law, some companies may not comply with the new regulations.

This is because the business group Sakeliga urged its more than 12,000 members to defy the Employment Equity Amendment Act when it came into effect in January.

At the start of December 2024, Sakeliga told its members that, while the Minister of Labour gave notice last week that the amendments will take effect on 1 January 2025, her department is in no position to enforce it. 

“First, comprehensive legal challenges by Sakeliga and others to counter the EE Amendment Act and forthcoming regulations are on the way,” the group said. 

“Second, the department and state in general lack the capability and resources to police employers at the scale required.” 

“Third, because the Amendment Act demands both the impossible and the unethical, most businesses will continue to avoid and defy it with clear consciences.”

Sakeliga encouraged businesspeople to remain firm and not make any changes to their employment policies for the sake of the EE Amendment Act. 

“Businesses should prepare for maximum achievable non-cooperation with an irrational, harmful, and unconstitutional Act for as long as it takes to have it scrapped or rendered practically impotent,” the group said.