EMPOWERING THE FEW, DISEMPOWERING THE MANY
By Jack Bloom
Two years ago, Eskom’s human resources MD Mpho Letlape told a financial magazine that they had to hire 5000 skilled staff for their R84 billion infrastructure programme, and that half of these had to be black women.
Eskom’s employment equity targets for 2010 include 65% black staff at managerial level, and 40% women representation.
The recent devastating power cuts are due to maintenance problems as well as lack of capacity, and accusations have been made that inexperienced engineers and artisans are to blame.
A Carte Blanche TV expose has blamed a lack of coal supply on the use of BEE suppliers, casting doubt on the wet coal excuse.
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens suffer most from the blackouts. The fact that Eskom is obsessed with race and gender targets instead of hiring the best available skills surely does not comfort the Soweto housewife who tries to prepare food by candle light.
“Transformation” and “affirmative action” have become meaningless words that are used to justify the privileging of a very small elite, but with outcomes that often disadvantage those who are weakest and most vulnerable.
In the case of Eskom’s power cuts, it is literally a case of empowerment for the few, and disempowerment for the many.
Factory workers arrive for work anxious that machines will be able to provide another day’s pay. Waiters don’t get tips when restaurants are forced to close up shop. Small businesses feel the pinch particularly hard.
Affirmation action should really mean the greatest upliftment for the greatest number of people, and this should include effective service delivery in key areas like health, education, policing and electricity supply.
In Gauteng, the health department is headed by a black woman who is patently just not up to the job.
At the Helen Joseph hospital, which has a woman CEO, R14 million worth of advanced digital mammography machines stood unused for 18 months, leading to long waiting lists for breast screening. Late detection of cancer could mean the difference between life and death.
White applicants for hospital posts have been turned down in favour of lesser qualified black applicants. This hits morale and fuels their exodus to the private sector or to overseas.
The 2008/09 target is for women to fill 50% of senior management posts in the department. If this is achieved, it will benefit about 100 women, but many thousands of female patients may well suffer if they are appointed not on merit but to fill a quota.
A further problem is that in many cases, the outright political appointment of incompetents is easier when the merit criterion is de-emphasized in favour of race or gender.
The illogic of all this is illustrated by the fact that female medical students now outnumber male students at many medical schools. In 2003, females were 55% of undergraduate medical students in South Africa, and as high as 63% at the University of Cape Town.
They are there on merit, and would feel degraded if it were suggested otherwise. Should their numbers be decreased to 50% to enable men to become doctors equal to their share in the population?
If this happened, patients could start to avoid newly qualified male doctors who they might think were less competent than women doctors.
Full representivity in every sector is never possible nor is equality of outcome, unless the most horrendous social engineering is attempted that is thoroughly incompatible with a free society.
The way forward is for quality education and training, the removal of unfair obstacles to advancement and providing real opportunity for all.
Merit must be the touchstone so that everyone will have pride in their achievement and be respected for it.
AUTHOR:Jack Bloom is the DA Leader in the Gauteng Legislature. This is an edition of his weekly newsletter ‘Rising Tide’
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| Posted on 28/2/2008
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