DA asks ILO to act against Labour Minister

Mdladlana is currently chairman of the ILO. ‘Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana\'s weekend remarks that affirmative action will never be scrapped is not only racist and destructive to our economy, but also in conflict with the rules of the International Labour Organisation,’ DA labour spokesperson Mark Lowe said. ILO convention 111 approved affirmative action only as a temporary corrective measure to protect certain groups within a society, and ruled out any broader employment practices that discriminated on the basis of race, he said. Full report on the FIN24 site

The Minister has the backing of Cosatu, however. ‘We welcome and support the statement by the Minister that affirmative action would never be repealed but would be intensified instead,’ said spokesperson Patrick Craven. According to a report in The Witness, Cosatu also agreed that the imbalances of apartheid were still far from being redressed. ‘The pattern on employment still reveals the predominance of white males in senior positions,’ said Craven. Full report in The Witness