The storm of outrage after the exposure of a letter by Dis-Chem CEO Ivan Saltzman in which he placed a moratorium on the recruitment of any more white employees was enough to seemingly make the company backtrack.
Faced with a possible boycott by white consumers, the company said it had withdrawn the controversial letter … although it did not specifically indicate its stance on employment equity.
The letter clearly showed that Dis-Chem has woken up to the fact it is facing a legislated penalty of up to 10% of its turnover for noncompliance with employment equity requirements. That drew claims of reverse racism and calls for a boycott of the company by white consumers and led to many refusing to do business with the company.
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Many white people are worried that they – and more, importantly, their children and grandchildren – have little future in a country which sets race-based employment quotas. Many young whites have already left the country because of this.
The outrage ignores two important points. First, after more than 300 years of a system based on race superiority – and the racial laws in the apartheid era – there was a need not only for redress but for a basic levelling of the playing field in the areas of employment and economic opportunity. To deny that is to not only deny history, but to hanker after that past.
Secondly, why was Dis-Chem so far behind on transformation goals? Had the company – and many others like it in South Africa – been proactive in redressing actions over the past 28 years, we would not be having this angry conversation now.
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The delays in dealing with this issue have only led to more polarisation and a deepening of wounds and increasing anger in relationships between the races. And that bodes ill for the future.
