Whites still dominate top management

Whites still occupy 73.6 percent of top management positions in the country, the Commission of Employment Equity reported today.

Blacks made up 12.7 percent of top management, Indians 6.8 percent and coloureds 4.6 percent, the CEE said in its 11th annual report released in Pretoria.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said she was disappointed at the slow pace of reform at top management.

"We really have to take drastic measures to deal with the situation," she said.

The CEE said its findings were based on 16,698 reports submitted by companies with 150 or more employees, and covered 5,280,037 employees.

Companies with less than 150 employees were not required to submit reports.

The CEE said that although whites made up 73.1 percent of top management, they made up only 12.1 percent of the economically active population.

Blacks made up 73.6 percent of that population, with 12.7 percent in top management.

In 2006, blacks had constituted 11.3 percent of top management and whites 74.9 percent.

At a senior management level whites still dominated, holding 64.1 percent of those positions, the CEE said.

Blacks occupied 17.6 percent of senior management positions, coloured seven percent and Indians nine percent.

The number of whites in senior management positions had dropped 6.8 percent since 2006, while the number of blacks had increased by 4.2 percent, Indians by 1.4 percent and coloureds by 1.2 percent.

According to the report, whites in top management were least dominant in the community, social and personal services sector where they occupied 52.4 percent of top management positions.

In the retail and motor trade sectors, whites occupied 81.8 percent of top management positions.

CEE chairwoman Mpho Nkelo said that at the current rate of change it would take 127 years before the racial break-down in top management was representative of the racial breakdown of the total economically active population.

"We don't see as much change as we would like to see," she said.

While many of the whites in top management positions were nearing retirement, there did not appear to be a move to recruit blacks into these positions, said Nkelo.

There had been a 13.7 percent increase in black employees at a professional level since 2006, and a 14.5 percent reduction in skilled white employees.

There had been an 11.8 percent increase in black employees at a skilled or technical level, and an 11.8 percent decrease in white employees.

The Black Management Forum found the report disappointing, said its managing director Nomhle Nkumbi-Ndopu.

"This report confirms what we have been saying about business in South Africa. Business is not serious about transformation," she said.

The report further justified the BMF's decision to part ways with Business Unity SA, she said.