Christopher Rutledge | May 12, 2025
To argue that employment equity is the source of economic hardship protects privilege through scapegoat transformation.
The DA went to court to challenge the Employment Stock Amendment Act, claiming that the government-mandated demographic target was unconstitutional and would damage the economy. However, this legal attack on change policies is a cynical distraction and obscures deeper truths. The biggest threat to SA's democratic promises is not the fairness of employment, but the sustainability of apartheid economic architecture, now managed by the new political elite.
The DA argues that racial-based relief promotes unemployment. It's a fascinating argument, but a false argument. If economic exclusion is due to change policies, mined communities – sitting on trillions of wealth in extracted minerals – will thrive. Instead, they are living proof that SA's economic engine continues to enrich the minority at the expense of many.
The upcoming report, “The Promise of Looted: The Myth of Mining Economy and the Just Transition, Mining affected communities unite in action, and mining unified women's actions” exposes the brutality of exclusion facing black majority in mined communities.
Using data from 11 social audits across the country, the report draws calm pictures.
The overall unemployment rate for the audited mining community is 72%.
Among young people aged 18-35, prices rise to astronomical 83%. and
78% of audited social and labor planning (SLP) projects were implemented without incomplete, nonexistent or meaningful community input.
These numbers are not unusual. They reflect a structural economy that was never dismantled – brands only. Community is the promised work, development and inclusion. Instead, they receive ghost projects, exclusion from the planning process, and pollution of land, air and water.
Meanwhile, mining companies continue to post record profits with revenues exceeding 1 trillion Randall in 2024 alone, directing those profits to shareholders and politically connected elites. This is the “Economy of Breadcrumbs” in action. It is a deliberate containment of token gestures and redistribution into short-term handouts, but the foundations of wealth are not mentioned.
Convenient amnesia of DA
The DA wants to erase this context. The Western Cape claims that it is proving that employment equity is unnecessary with a relatively low unemployment rate. However, this story collapses under scrutiny.
Latest data from Stats SA shows that Cape Town's unemployment rate is growing by 32.9%. In the non-metro parts of the state where many blacks and residents of colour live, unemployment rates for discouraged job seekers and youths are well above the state average. Although DA may refer to macro-level metrics, racialized poverty remains ingrained on earth.
It is dishonest to argue that employment equity is the source of economic hardship, while ignoring these structural realities. Protect your privileges through scapegoat transformation.
But don't pretend that the only problem is DA. The ANC must be held responsible for obstructing the very policy that was intended to achieve the relief. The broad bee could be a transformational tool. Instead, it became a predatory platform – captured by political elites, abused for bidding and sponsorship, and weaponized to justify the accumulation of wealth in many names.
In the mining sector, the ANC oversees the collapse of accountability mechanisms. SLP is a legally binding development commitment – withering without enforcement. Communities are removed from the plan and rejected interest in ownership of the resources at their feet. With this failure, cynicians like DA gave them the ammunition they currently use to attack the attack itself.
We must be clear: the bee's failure does not mean that no relief is necessary. That means we need to save salvation from the elite who betrayed it.
Don't throw away your baby in the bath
Yes, we demand good governance. Yes, change must be transparent, community-driven and accountable. However, as the DA suggests, abandoning fairness altogether is not the solution. It is a return to an unfair situation. If anything, the failure of elite-led bees proves that more grassroots accountability is needed.
The future of SA is not on the courts' challenges designed to protect privileges. It involves ensuring policies like employment equity are strengthened, enforced and reimagined in ways that reinforce those who have been structurally excluded for generations.
As our looted promise report shows, the so-called “just transitions” are myths when we keep on the sidelines of the people most affected. We stopped denounce fairness for the failure of our greed, and began to promising the world and demand justice from communities that were given nothing but dust.
•Rutledge is the executive director of mined mining communities and is influenced by women affected by the unified unified community and mining.
“Disclaimer – the views and opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author and are not necessarily those of the Bee Room.”
