Presentation by Abiola Okpechi, Anglophone Africa Research,

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (based in South Africa)

panel: “The workplace: Addressing racial discrimination & promoting diversity”

United Nations, Geneva, 22 April 2009

In the short time available to me, I would like to give you a brief snapshot of some key issues around racial discrimination in the workplace in Africa. My comments are based on reports that we receive from contacts across the continent or from media reports that come to our attention.

First off, I would like to say that racial discrimination is not a straightforward subject to address from a continental perspective. The reason being that in most sub-Saharan countries, the majority of the population is black. And so discrimination along the lines of white, black, Asian etcis not usually the norm. Rather the issue is more often manifested in the form of ethnic discrimination. For example, a 2008 report by Human Rights Watch on gold mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo includes allegations by trade unions that the state mining company OKIMOhad a history of discriminatory practices in which the Hema tribe was favoured at the expense of the Lendu. According to OKIMO employees the Hema predominate in management positions, while Lendu workers were rarely promoted and those who did reach management positions were compensated at a lower rate than were non-Lendu at equivalent levels.

Another report by Angolan journalist Rafael Marques, who has written extensively on human rights issues in the Angolan diamond industry, describes discriminatory practices in which assimilados – those who are deemed to have assimilated Portuguese culture – receive more favourable treatment in the workplace than other ethnic groups such as the Lunda-Tchokwé who are deemed to be ignorant and backward.

South Africa is in a unique position because of the historical legacy of apartheid.Whereas the practice of having separate facilities in the workplace is more or less gone, racism is still manifested in behaviour like name calling, derogatory remarks, and discrepancies in treatment of staff holding equal positions.

Strangely enough in a country where race still dominates public discourse, concrete well-researched reports on discrimination in the workplace are few and far between. But media reports and anecdotal evidence suggest that racial discrimination is alive and well in South African workplaces.

An incident occurred in 2007 that drew national attention to the matter. Bonga Bangani, a young intern at Investec, a financial services company, wrote a letter to his division head explaining why he was turning down an offer of permanent employment with the company. In it,he described discrepancies in the attitudes of senior colleagues towards training black and white employees and shared some of his own experience. He detailed some of the discriminatory practices he had witnessed and experienced during his one-year internship. He said that while his white colleague attended professional development courses, were given tasks necessary for developing critical skills, and got a laptop from the company, he received none of those things. Describing the injustice he felt at such treatment, he said “The issue here is not about the material things like laptops etc...the issue here is the significant discrepancy in the level of fairness and treatment between two young people, of similar age, working for the same manager, same team, same organization, but treated so differently. One is white, one is black. Is this fair?...I’m neither pro-black nor am I pro-white…but I am pro-humanity, pro-fairness and equal treatment.”

His letter brought out some interesting dynamics which are very much a part of race issues in South African workplaces –

  1. From comments made by colleagues while discussing the issue of training of black staff, he found that black upward mobility is sometimes interpreted as encroaching on white territory and not as a levelling of the playing field. Hence the widespread disenchantment with the implementation of Black Economic Empowerment strategies. I’m not suggesting of course that there aren’t legitimate challenges in how BEE is being implemented, but the bottomline is that it is often seen as a means of empowering blacks at the expense of whites.
  2. Secondly, as Bonga noted, victims of racial discrimination at his company often do not try to address the issue or report it. They choose instead to leave the company and look for other jobs. His contention is borne out by the opinion of experts in this field. According to Wits University law professor Tshepo Mosikatsana, for example, racial discrimination can be extremely difficult to prove. People would rather leave a company in response to racism. This probably explains why despite media reports and anecdotal evidence pointing to significant levels of racism in South African workplaces, there is little by way of legal challenges or complaints to labour courts.
  3. When confronted with allegations of racial discrimination, the usual answer is for management of the affected company to claim ignorance. Bonga’s division head denied knowledge of such occurrences and said the case was an isolated incident. However, Bonga’s letter led to Investec convening a transformation meeting in which several staff members spoke up in support of his allegations. A commitment was made by Investec’s CEO to begin to address the issue. This illustrates the importance of information and openness around racisim in the workplace. Bonga’schallenge to others facing discrimination was "Why not challenge companies to be fair and work to bring it [racism] to their attention?" if it is not spoken about, it will not be addressed.

Another issue I would like to flag is discrimination against local staff by foreign companies. This usually shows up in wage disparities, career advancement, access to facilities and benefits, etc. This is not always a racial discrimination issue, because sometimes it’s just foreign companies making practical decisions to cut costs or fill existing skills gaps by bringing in their own already-trained headquarters staff. But sometimes it is racial discrimination. It takes on racial dimensions when, for example, a person of Chinese origin is appointed locallyand receives the same treatment as those brought in from headquarters, which is often better treatment than locals of the same level of skills holding similar positions. In this instance it is obvious that his race is the determining factor on how he is treated. This has led to tension within such companies, and in the case of a Chinese-owned company in Guinea, led to violence and fatality when local staff rebelled against the company’s management.

It is probably safe to say that there is no one company that has has all the answers on racial discrimination, diversity and transformation in the workplace. But the efforts of those who are making a difference need to be recognised. It was an interesting processfinding a South African company to be on this panel. The usual verdict, as we sought the opinions of various people and organizations, was that racial discrimination is not an issue that was being properly dealt with or receiving the attention it deserves from South African companies. However, Nedbank’s positive efforts in this area were repeatedly mentioned. The company’s commitment to transformation and addressing racial discrimination is evidenced by the change in its workforce and management structure over the past 10 years. It has gone so far as to produce a toolkit to help it navigate the transformation process and this toolkit has been made available to other companies as well. It is hoped that Nedbank’s positive example in such a difficult area will be followed by more companies.