More than 50 Department of Employment and Labour inspectors specialising in employment equity (EE) were put through their paces to get them ready for the implementation of the EE Amendment Act, No. 4 of 2022 which came into force on 1 January 2025, including its EE Regulations published on 15 April 2025. 

Department of Employment and Labour's Employment Equity Directorate, Deputy Director Masilo Lefika said yesterday's (Thursday, 24 April 2025) workshop was organised as part of capacity building to prepare the EE inspectors when conducting inspections and enforcement to improve compliance with the new legislation, the accompanying regulations and sector EE targets.

The training workshop for Employment Equity Inspectors was held at Premier Hotel in Arcadia, Pretoria. The training focused among others: on how to ensure implementation and compliance to the EE Amendments, EE Regulations, the implementation of five-year Sector EE targets for the 18 economic sectors, and on the use of the EE online system to capture EE reports and request EE Certificate of Compliance.

Lefika emphasised the need for employers to comply with the law.

“A designated employer which is the employer that employs 50 and more employees must prepare and implement an Employment Equity (EE) Plan for the period from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2030 to align with the timeframes of the five years of the sector EE targets", he said.

Lefika said the five-year sectoral numerical targets are key milestones towards achieving the equitable representation of the different designated groups within the four upper occupational levels in an employer's workforce in relation to the demographics of the applicable Economically Active Population (EAP), and for persons with disabilities.

With the new amendments now in place, the inspectors were also informed about the changes on regulation eight of EE, which talks to collecting information and conducting analysis.

A designated employer must record on the EEA12 template whether it is using the national or regional EAP as a basis for conducting its analysis in terms of section 19 of the Act,' he pointed out.

Furthermore, Lefika said, the designated employer must comply with the numerical targets set in terms of section 15A (3) for the economic sector in which they operate. If the employer operates in more than one sector, it must apply the numerical targets for the sector in which the majority of their employees are engaged.

According to Lefika, a designated employer will incur no penalty or any form of disadvantage if there are reasonable grounds to justify its failure to comply with any annual EE target.

The justifiable reasons/grounds to be considered for failure to comply with the Annual EE targets contained in the  EEA15 and regulation 16 were also outlined, among them are: insufficient recruitment opportunities, insufficient promotion opportunities, insufficient target individuals from the designated groups with the relevant qualifications, skills and experience, CCMA/ Court Order, transfer of business, merger/acquisitions, and the impact of economic circumstances on the business.

NB: The joint Department of Employment and Labour, the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) advocacy national workshops/roadshows to engage with various stakeholders in the labour market about the implication(s) of the new legislation which were due to start on 6 May 2025 have been postponed due to logistical problems.

The rescheduled workshops are now set to begin on 20 May 2025 in East London, Eastern Cape.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694/ teboho.thejane@labour.gov.za

-ENDS-

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour

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