The submission of Employment Equity (EE) Reports for the 2025 EE reporting period begins on Monday,1 September 2025.

Employment Equity Amendment Act, No. 4 of 2022 became operational from 1 January 2025. Subsequently, two sets of EE Regulations on EE reporting forms and other EE templates; and the five-year sector EE targets for the 18 economic sectors were published on 15 April 2025 to provide guidelines to employers and employees on how to interpret and implement the recent EE amendments and sector EE targets.

Following the enactment of amendments to the EE Act – designated employers must prepare and implement an EE Plan for the period from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2030.

Designated employers (i.e. those that employ 50 and more employees) are reminded to submit their Employment Equity (EE) reports from 1 September 2025 to 1 October 2025 for manual submission or from 1 September 2025 to 15 January 2026 (midnight) in the case of online submission.

It is worth noting that designated employers' compliance will be assessed against their annual EE targets set towards meeting the relevant five-year sectoral numerical EE targets.  

Employment and Labour Director of EE, Ms Ntsoaki Mamashela said that for employers to complete the 2025 EE report (i.e. EEA2 and EEA4 forms) online or declare their current status as a non-designated employer, they must activate their profile by clicking the activation link that will be provided in the reminder letter that will be send to all employers (via email addresses of CEOs and EE Senior Managers on EE System database) from 1 September 2025.

“Non-designated employers (i.e. those that employ less than 50 employees) are required to confirm or update their statuses, to be able to request and access the EE Compliance Certificate in terms of section 53 of the Employment Equity Act, 1998 (EEA) as amended. Employers who have previously deregistered their EE account are required to notify the Director- General of the Department of Employment and Labour in writing to request re-activation of their EE account," Mamashela said.

She said employers who do not have an EE account must please register their profile online and thereafter, access the EE online portal to request the EE Compliance Certificate in terms of section 53 of the EEA.

All designated employers are required to align their EE Plans with the current EE Sector targets that were published on Government Gazette number 52515 of 15 April 2025 before submission of 2025 EE reports. For more information, please visit the departmental website: www.labour.gov.za and go to Online services then EE Online to access EE Online reporting facility.

The Department in preparation for the 2025 EE reporting season, between May and July 2025 conducted joint EE advocacy workshops with the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) and, Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) - in which employers and employees were engaged on amended EE Act and also guided on how to accurately report their compliance with EE legislation.

The EE national workshops were held under the theme: “Bridging the Equity Gap Through Diversity & Inclusion". 

The key objectives and implications of the EE Amendment Act, 2022 are:

• To empower the Minister to regulate sector specific EE numerical targets in order to ensure the equitable representation of suitably qualified people from the designated groups;

• To promulgate section 53 of the EEA for the issuing of the EE Compliance Certificate as a prerequisite for access to state contracts and doing business with any organ of state; and

• To reduce the regulatory burden on small business (i.e. those that employ 1 to 49 employees).

According to the 25^th Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) Annual Report, in the 2024 EE reporting season, there were 29 269 quality EE reports that were submitted covering 7 699 665 employees, which reflects an increase of 4.5% reports received and an increase of 4.3% employees covered for 2024 EE reporting period.

For media enquiries, 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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