NEASA and Sakeliga issue terms to the Minister of Employment and Labour.

NEASA and Sakeliga issue terms to the Minister of Employment and Labour

National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA) and Sakeliga have notified the Minister of Employment and Labour, Dr Nomakhosazana Meth, of our intention to seek an urgent interdict against the employment equity regulations of 15 April 2025.

The Minister is seeking to force employers to comply with her hiring quotas based on race, sex and disability from September 2025, on penalty of fines as high as 10% of turnover.

The purpose of the urgent interdict would be to prevent the Minister’s unlawful actions from causing an enormous and irrevocable waste of public and private resources, in a futile attempt at compliance with the impossible requirements. We have given the Minister until 18 June 2025 to suspend or withdraw the regulations, failing which our attorneys are instructed to bring an urgent application.

The Minister’s regulations stipulate that companies should classify themselves into one of eighteen economic sectors and attempt to alter their workforce according to various racial and other hiring quotas. The hiring quotas, called ‘numerical sectoral targets’ in the regulations, instruct companies to refrain from appointing or promoting white male staff, or any other over-represented racial group according to government calculations, in order to diminish their representation in the workplace. The end goal of these targets is to ensure that every single designated business (50 or more employees) in South Africa, regardless of industry, has a workforce that is representative of the racial and gender demographic composition of the country.

The regulations and the Employment Equity Act (as amended in 2023) establish unlawful, unconstitutional, and impossible demands. Their consequence would be severe financial harm to businesses and extensive social harm through economic disruption, increased unemployment, and legal uncertainty.

The regulations would apply to virtually all employers in South Africa with 50 staff or more, and affects local and international employers equally.

We informed the Minister that, in addition to our urgent application against the 2025 administrative regulations and sectoral targets, we also intend to challenge the Employment Equity Act on additional grounds.

Statement issued by NEASA

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