Labour minister slammed

2008-06-25 13:01

Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) called on Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Wednesday to retract his statement that Chinese employers had no excuse to mistreat their workers now that they have been classified as coloured.

"It is grossly inappropriate for a national minister to make the kinds of claims that entrench the idea that South Africa is a nation of separate and hostile identities," said DA labour spokesperson Anchen Dreyer.

"Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana should retract his divisive comments."

Mdladlana told journalists in Cape Town on Tuesday that the Chinese Association of South Africa might regret their court bid.

Racist views

The Pretoria High Court last week ruled that Chinese South Africans should be included in the definition of "black people" in laws, including black economic empowerment legislation, designed to benefit previously disadvantaged groups.

"I hope that they [Chinese employers] would ... make sure that they would implement and comply with the Labour Relations Act, and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, much, much better now that they have decided to classify themselves as coloureds as in the past," Mdladlana said.

The DA said: "His comments suggest that the ANC, despite all its claims to non-racialism, sees South Africans in fundamentally racist terms...

"While it would be naive to deny that many South Africans do still see themselves in primarily racial terms, the government has a responsibility to create an environment where ideas of racial exclusivity are not seen as acceptable," said Dreyer.

Mdladlana also said 90 percent of the Chinese factories inspected by his department had been found "wanting".

"On the labour market, I don't think they have given it careful thought, because there they are going to have some serious difficulties in relation to the way they are treating the workers in the workplaces.

"Because in some workplaces, that we have visited together with some of the inspectors, they even refuse to speak English.

"They say, we can't speak English. Chinese pretend to be dumb when they are not. We know they are not. Chinese are very clever people."

But Dreyer said the minister was just "adding fuel to the fire" with that statement.

"It is entirely inappropriate for any minister to bandy about stereotypical ideas about the language or any other characteristics of any racial grouping," said Dreyer.

- SAPA