Correctional Services Commissioner, Tom Moyane

It has been alleged that the Department of Correctional Services has a policy of (ultimately) limiting the number of Coloureds and Whites at all levels of their employ in the Western Cape to the percentage that the White and Coloured population bears to the whole of the South African population. This means, in practice, that Whites and Coloured officials in the province are routinely denied appointments or promotions on the basis of their race.

But what does this mean in practice? Or, as some of us like to call it, REAL LIFE.

Let’s use the below case as an example:

Solidarity trade union has taken the department to the Labour Court to challenge its refusal to approve the appointment of Mr. P.J. Davids as Assistant Director of Human Resources Administration.

This is based on leaked correspondence between officials at Correctional Services, denying this man the right to claim the promotion.

All the memo’s can be read here, but for those of us not familiar with admin speak, here is a rundown of what happened:

• Five candidates were short listed and interviewed on 23 September 2010 for a promotion.
• In this process, Davids was strongly recommended as the first candidate for appointment in this vacant position. None of the other four candidates were recommended for appointment.
• But because of the departments strict adherence to South Africa’s BEE policy, special permission had to be asked from head office to go ahead and appoint Davids. This included detailed motivations, not only on why he is the ideal candidate, but also the fact that no one else could be found to do the job.
• The answer back from head office? No. Keep advertising the position, and conduct the interview process, until a BEE candidate can be found.
• By BEE candidate they mean a Black guy. So even if Davids was Coloured, he still wouldn’t have gotten it. And remember, we are still talking about the Western Cape here.

[Source: Politicsweb]