By 
The DA has gone to court to challenge the Employment Equity Amendment Act, arguing that government-mandated demographic targets are unconstitutional and damaging to the economy. But this legal assault on transformation policies is a cynical distraction, one that obscures the deeper truth — the greatest threat to SA’s democratic promise is not employment equity but the persistence of apartheid’s economic architecture, now managed by a new political elite.
The DA claims that race-based redress fuels unemployment. It is a seductive argument, but a false one. If economic exclusion were the fault of transformation policies, mining-affected communities — sitting atop trillions of rand in extracted mineral wealth — would be thriving. Instead, they are living proof that the economic engine of SA continues to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
In our soon-to-be-released report, “Looted Promises: The Crumbs Economy of Mining and the Myth of the Just Transition, the Mining Affected Communities United in Action and Women Affected by Mining United in Action” movements expose the brutality of exclusion faced by the black majority in mining-affected communities.
Drawing on data from 11 social audits across the country, the report paints a sobering picture:
- Overall unemployment across the audited mining-affected communities stands at 72%;
- Among young people aged 18—35, the rate climbs to an astronomical 83%; and
- 78% of social & labour plan (SLP) projects audited were either incomplete, nonexistent, or implemented without meaningful community input.
These figures are not aberrations. They reflect a structural economy that was never dismantled — only rebranded. Communities are promised jobs, development and inclusion. What they receive instead are ghost projects, exclusion from planning processes and the pollution of their land, air and water
Meanwhile, mining companies continue to post record profits — more than R1-trillion in turnover in 2024 alone — and channel those gains to shareholders and politically connected elites. This is the “crumbs economy” in action: the deliberate containment of redistribution to token gestures and short-term handouts, while the foundations of wealth remain untouched.
The DA’s convenient amnesia
The DA wants to erase this context. It argues that the Western Cape — with its relatively lower unemployment rate — proves that employment equity is unnecessary. But this narrative collapses under scrutiny.
Stats SA’s latest data shows that the City of Cape Town has an expanded unemployment rate of 32.9%. In non-metro parts of the province, where many black and coloured residents live, discouraged job seekers and youth unemployment are well above the provincial average. The DA may point to macro-level metrics, but on the ground, racialised poverty remains entrenched.
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