white women to profit from equity act
6 December 2007

White women should continue to benefit from employment equity legislation, the Business Women's Association (BWA) said on Wednesday.  "The numbers are telling us that women, as far as their role in decision-making and leadership in corporations is concerned, are still far from reaching levels of representivity," said the BWA President Namane Magau, speaking at a BWA workshop at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

In September, Employment Equity Commission Chairperson Jimmy Manyi called on Parliament’s labour portfolio committee to amend the Employment Equity Act to exclude white women from affirmative action on the grounds that they had benefited disproportionately from the policy. "We should not allow the problem (the Manyi Commission finding) to divide us, but neither should we be simplistic in our approach," Magau said.

She said women needed to bridge the gap between the upward mobility of black women so that they did not lag behind their white counterparts. Business woman Basetsana Kumalo said the 2.5 percent of women in senior executive positions was still too small to make race a defining factor. The BWA's CEO Angie Makwetla said it was important that voices of women of all races were heard, especially when faced with a contentious issue that sought to divide them.

The BWA workshop was attended by representatives from SA Women in Dialogue, Nafcoc and the Department of Trade & Industry.

Sapa, www.business.iafrica.com