South Africa’s Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) has sparked the most serious constitutional dispute in 25 years of workplace transformation.
In just one week, two heavyweight challenges have landed in the High Court – proof that the argument is no longer whether we transform, but how.
A law written for the courtroom, not the boardroom
On April 29, 2025 the Democratic Alliance lodged its founding affidavit, arguing that section 15A hands “unchecked power” to the Minister of Employment and Labour to impose sector-wide demographic quotas. The party warns that rigid numbers will strangle job creation, sideline provincial realities and undermine the right to equality.
Business puts the brakes on quotas
Barely two months later – Neasa and Sakeliga sought an urgent interdict on July 8. Their papers cite fatal flaws: sectors never properly gazetted, consultations capped at 1 000 virtual seats, and no socio-economic impact study. They call the quotas “arbitrary” and “irrational” because they ignore skills pipelines and provincial demographics.
When a compliance regime collapses into a numbers game divorced from economic reality, litigation becomes inevitable.
Solidarity follows suit
Trade union Solidarity is also considering contempt-of-court proceedings after safeguards it negotiated in the build-up to these amendments – no job losses, race never the sole criterion, temporary measures only – were omitted from the final regulations. Its first salvo targets a listed company’s bursary scheme for allegedly excluding white applicants.
Department’s response
The Department of Employment and Labour insists the process was “extensive and legally compliant” and that employers remain free to motivate deviations where operational realities demand.
The manufacturing gap tells the story
For example, to reach the 2030 targets, the manufacturing sector would need to appoint an extra 69 172 African employees across management levels – 45 915 of them at junior management. Top-management shortfalls exceed 2 500 positions. These are major ‘stretch goals’, that are unlikely to be achieved in the current trading context.
For example, to reach the 2030 targets, manufacturing firms would need to add 69 172 African employees across their management hierarchy – 45 915 of them at junior-management level alone.
These goals, along with those applicable across most other sectors, reflect a massive deficit of African representation, which is a reflection of both slow progress over the past 26 years since the Employment Equity Act was promulgated and systemic challenges organisations will face over the next five years, such as low economic growth, AI and digitisation, skills transformation, geopolitical unrest, and poor public sector service delivery.
Tick-tock to August 31, 2025
Regulations that took effect on April 15 appear to shift the system from voluntary benchmarks to mandatory five-year sectoral targets. Designated employers (50 + staff) must re-do their workforce analysis, draft fresh plans, and submit their reports to the Department of Employment and Labour between September 1, 2025 and January 15, 2026.
From 2026 onward, compliance certificates will be issued only if annual milestones are met; failure to comply means designated employers must justify their deviations or face exclusion from state contracts and fines starting at 2% of annual turnover.
Where do employers go from here?
- Treat litigation as parallel, not a reason to delay compliance. Court timetables are unlikely to pause compliance deadlines; plan scenarios for both the current quotas and possible alternatives.
- Use the Act’s flexibilities – employers may still set annual targets and motivate variances.
- Invest in skills, not statistics – large gaps require expanded learnerships and bursaries aligned to future technologies, as well as deliberate career and succession planning.
- Document everything – specially deviation justifications related to recruitment and promotion constraints, skills shortages, mergers, acquisitions, transfers, court orders, and other business circumstances.
A call for a new social compact
Transformation cannot succeed by decree alone. We need a negotiated framework that marries constitutional imperatives with economic pragmatism. Otherwise, every five-year plan will start in the High Court.
Jonathan Goldberg, Chairman, and John Botha, CEO, Global Business Solutions
** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or .
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