A world apart from the everday ...

the kind of idiotic comments made by said minister make my blood boil ...

quote
"But when confronted with the question of affirmative action precluding some individuals from gaining employment in SA, Sibuyi steadfastly claimed he had “never heard of a person being turned down [for employment] because they are white”.

end quote

He has never heard of this happening? What has he had his head in the ground for the past 9 years?
This has happened personally to me a number of times!
"Sorry you have all the skills we need but we simply CANNOT employ you because you're white!"

What does affirmative action by it's very definition force on companies? I'll tell you ... it means controlling the makeup of company's workforce based on their colour ... X no. of board members and senior mngt will be black.

It has even been demanded of me that I train and skill the person that was meant to take my senior role in an organisation that I had spent years working up to.
Currently there are people "running" companies that have had absolutely no experience in doing so; please don't tell me they worked up to those positions. the ONLY reason they are there is because of their skin colour.

quote
“A company cannot turn down anyone because of colour. If this is happening, people must take action and approach such bodies as the Human Rights Commission or the Constitutional Court,” he says.

end quote

Wake up sir! This happens on a daily basis! When was the last time this said Minister interviewed for a job? I'd say never ...
Mr Minister, i think it is time that you step out of your protected little ivory tower and face what is really happening in this lovely "equality for all" country!

It does not stop there. When experienced & highly skilled people accept the fact that they cannot work for a company anymore because they are white and attempt to start their own company they're discriminated against because they're not black owned and therefore cannot ever get contracts from the larger companies. I know! It happened to me! I was expected to give away 51% of my small company's profits to some black owner that never contributed to the bottom line, except for the fact that his name appeared on my letterhead!

The government says there are no skills in this country!?!
What crap!

We're here but we're unable to contribute because we're slowly but surely being forced out.

Why is it that you think thousands of skilled & experienced professionals are leaving our fine country to work abroad in less ideal conditions? It's because other countries are only to happy to take our hardworking and experienced people.

Instead of importing skill into the country, how about scrapping the obviously racist policy of affirmative action and encourage the much needed ex-pats back home!

DJ

I completely agree with you that in it's concept it is a good idea; however SA's implementation thereof stinks!

Excuse the use of an age old cliche but it is entirely applicable to this situation ...

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life"

Instead of using the skills and experience of people to skill up and train those that have been previously disadvantaged up to the point where they are able to run companies on their own, we throw them in the deep end people to do a job they have never been trained for or skilled for.

Look at Zim, where the highly controversial landgrab situation was said by some to be the right thing, and the only way to right the wrongs of the past ... Farms that used to produce hundreds of tonnes of export quality citrus fruit are now barren and bare. Where trucks streamed out with load after load of fruit, now only people with firewood leave the farm.

If these people had been trained to operate a farm of this scale properly this would never have happened.

There are countless examples of empowerment working; just none in the South African job market.