|
|
South Africa: Black Business Fury At Chinese Ruling
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Day (Johannesburg)
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 3 July 2008
Luphert Chilwane
Johannesburg
BLACK business and professional organisations said yesterday they would appeal against the court ruling classifying Chinese South Africans as black if the government did not.
The objection was voiced by organisations, including the National African Federated Chambers of Commerce (Nafcoc), Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of SA, Black Management Forum, Black Lawyers Association (BLA), SA Institute of Black Property Practitioners, National Black Business Caucus and Black Business Executive Circle.
They described the recent ruling by Pretoria High Court Judge Cynthia Pretorius, as "surprising, irrational, shallow, opportunistic and inexplicable". The ruling had far-reaching implications for SA's economic transformation efforts.
"As black business and professional organisations, we reject both the substance and process that was followed leading to this judgment.
"This judgment, in our view, revises a long-held historical view of the democratic struggle in SA."
They said identification of Africans, coloureds and Indians as major beneficiaries of broad-based black economic empowerment and employment equity was based on a sophisticated socioeconomic analysis that took into account poor access to quality education, lack of economic access and poor living conditions.
Only Indians, Africans and coloureds should benefit primarily from black economic empowerment and employment equity. "As part of the South African economic community, we are quite shocked about the decision of the court.
"People, especially blacks, coloureds and Indians suffered discrimination.
"We as blacks need to jealously guard that we were historically disadvantaged and suffered under apartheid," said Sandile Zungu, chairman of Zungu Investments Company.
Busani Mabunda, representing the BLA, said the decision could not be ignored. "This is a dereliction of duty by the government, and there is need for robust debate."
The organisations blamed the government, especially the labour and trade and industry departments for not consulting people directly affected by the case and for failing to oppose the legal application by the representatives of the "Chinese community".
The organisations said they had instructed attorneys to study the judgment "with a view to exploring possible legal routes", which would include appealing against the ruling.
The BLA said that in law any affected party had the right to answer to a case, and could appeal against a judgment if the government was unwilling to do so.
Nafcoc president Buhle Mthethwa said it had filed a letter of request for a meeting with the labour and the trade and industry departments.
|
Dupree Vilakazi of the black business caucus said: "The judge did not apply her mind. I do not blame her for that because she has never lived like me in the township or suffered like me during apartheid."
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
