Johan Fourie | The unintended consequences of the Employment Equity Bill

At best, new employment equity legislation will increase red tape. At worst, it will be the final nail in the coffin for many entrepreneurs, argues Johan Fourie. 

On 12 April, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Bill. The bill aims to promote "diversity and equality in the workplace" by empowering the government to set specific equity targets by sector and region. The reason this is necessary is that the racial composition of the workplace still does not reflect the South African population three decades after the end of apartheid, and previous policies aimed at 'transformation', an unfortunate euphemism for racial rebalancing, have failed.