OUTSIDE VIEW
FERIAL HAFFAJEE: I am a proud employment equity candidate
The term 'employment equity candidate' has become like a leper's badge attached to black people in the workplace
I am proud to be called an employment equity candidate and attribute various splendid jobs I've had to the policy's success. Apartheid job reservation had other plans for people of my hue. We were destined for clothing factories when enclave South Africa still had a rag trade, or we were destined for jobs as tellers when banks were still in the analogue age. I didn't want to do those jobs, but saw no way out until the winds of freedom started blowing and the governing ANC wrote affirmative action (what became known as employment equity) into our constitution and laws. I always wanted to be a journalist, but it felt like a dream too far until freedom opened up vistas of hope. And so it is deeply sad to see how the term "employment equity candidate" has become like a leper's badge attached to black people in the workplace. WhenMark Lamberti - who resigned as CEO of Imperial Holdings on Wednesday - called the company's former group financial manager, Adila Chowan, an "employment equity...
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