Employers need to open the doors for women

By Zingiswa Losi

On Friday, we honoured the 68th anniversary of the heroic march to the Union Buildings by more than 20 000 women during the darkest days of apartheid. While it was sparked by the pass laws and the dream to be free in one’s own land, equally important was the desire to earn a living wage, and improve the lives of one’s children and families.

Without a doubt, we have made great progress as a nation since the democratic breakthrough of 1994, and the coming to power of ANC-led governments. Before 1994, less than 2% of members of Parliament were women and only one minister under the apartheid regime had been female. Today, South Africa is a global leader with half of Cabinet posts held by women, nearly similar ratios achieved in Parliament, and we will soon have our first woman Chief Justice.

Our Constitution not only prohibits discrimination based on gender but also sexual orientation. Our marital laws recognise same sex marriages.

Yet despite this commendable progress, we have much further to go. Reports by the Commission for Employment Equity paint a depressing picture. Thirty years into democracy, nearly 60% of senior management positions in the private sector are held by whites and males.

The number of African and coloured women occupying such positions are pitiful. Simultaneously, any visit to a supermarket will confirm the most poorly-paid jobs from cashiers to cleaners are inevitably held by African and coloured women.

Society naturally condemns this, yet we often do so simply from a human rights perspective. We forget these entrenched levels of inequality tying the hands of 51% of society from reaching its full economic potential, not only condemns them to poverty but also denies the economy half its capacity.

We should not be shocked when the economy continues to stumble along a meagre 1% growth when we deny half of our society their chance to fully participate.

The barriers facing women and girls are immense. While some will take time to overcome, others can be overcome now.

In addition to the Constitution’s unfair discrimination protections, the Employment Equity Act prohibits such practices in the workplace, and compels employers to take steps to ensure their workforce reflects South Africa’s demographic diversity.

The act was tightened in 2023 to nudge employers to move with greater speed given how many have made so little progress. The Department of Employment and Labour is now enabled to set specific sectoral, professional and regional targets and employers are allocated five years to show progress in meeting these. Employers must engage workers and unions on their employment equity plans.

A key clause of these amendments is the requirement for companies seeking to do business with the state to be in compliance with the Employment Equity and National Minimum Wage Acts. With an annual public procurement budget of R1 trillion, this will be a powerful incentive for companies to meet their targets.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed into law the Companies Amendment Acts, requiring listed and state-owned companies to disclose the wage gap between their highest and lowest-paid employees but also what they pay their top and lowest earners.

While this does not set a limit to what the wage gap may be, it seeks to name and shame those who see nothing wrong with paying the CEO of a retail company R100 million a year, while a cashier would be lucky to earn that in a millennium.

The need to pay workers a living wage is twofold. One is to enable workers to buy the essentials of life, eg food, clothing, a home and to enjoy life, and the second is the economy cannot grow if workers eg consumers cannot afford the goods they produce.

Workplaces cannot be productive if workers are exhausted because they cannot afford the food and medicines their bodies require to be healthy or are walking long distances to work, as transport is too expensive.

Similarly, workers are not able to retire in comfort as their salaries were too low to build a pension from. While the call for a living wage applies to all workers, it is even more pressing for women, as all too often women are not paid an equal wage for equal work.

The government under the ANC has done well to invest in the social wage, for free healthcare for pregnant mothers and their infants; subsidised public transport; free housing; and tertiary education for low-income households to 27 million people receiving social grants. These have boosted the incomes of millions, but they need to be complemented by workers being paid a living wage, and equal pay for equal work for women.

Crime reports released by the SA Police Service shed a horrifying light on the extent of gender-based violence (GBV) women and girls go through at home, in the community, on public transport, at school or university, and in the workplace.

Many jobs requiring workers to arrive early in the morning or leave late at night are too risky for women to consider. Many women workers are subjected to horrific workplace sexual harassment and end up resigning. When women lay charges at a police station or with human resources, all too often they are ignored.

Parliament overhauled our criminal legislation tackling GBV and harassment in 2021, what’s needed is to ensure state officials are well resourced and trained to implement these progressive amendments.

South Africa is rich with potential, yet despite a highly developed economy we are sitting on a ticking time bomb with a 42% unemployment rate, and entrenched-levels of poverty and inequality.

We have shown great determination to ensure women play their rightful role in our political discourse, yet we are laggards when it comes to ensuring women can live free from violence and crime, workplace discrimination, and harassment, and be allowed to reach their full career potential.

If we want to unlock the economy and create decent work, then employers – in particular in the private sector – need to open the doors for women.

Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi

BUSINESS REPORT