Helen Zille's remarks on Afrikaner "opportunities" under scrutiny

HELEN Zille has defended her comments that the Afrikaner community "took all opportunities very seriously" and there was "nothing stopping everyone else from following that example" despite backlash.

Zille took to X and wrote: “Afrikaners took all opportunities very seriously. Educated their children into professional skills and out of poverty. Built huge enterprises from the bottom up. Nothing stopping everyone else from following that example.”

Many quickly called her out, citing the racist apartheid system.

Approached for further comment on Thursday, Zille told the Cape Times: “Read the history of Afrikaners between 1902 and 1940, in any authoritative history. They started absolutely poverty stricken and economically excluded, and the story of how they changed that in the ensuing three decades is clear. The historical facts of the transition from poverty to prosperity of Afrikaners is well documented in many sources. Taking offence will not change this.”

This comes as the DA has turned to court to challenge the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA), which the party believes will repel investors and discriminate against certain races.

Her comments also come as the 2025 Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) annual report showed that white people were eight times their Economically Active Population (EAP) at top management, while the black population representation at just 18.0% is four times below their EAP.

The statistics contained in the report forms part of the Department of Employment and Labour’s basis to forge ahead with legislative amendments despite pushback from opposition parties, in particular the DA.

Employment Equity deputy director, Niresh Singh told a recent EE Roadshow in Pietermaritzburg that employers who are not compliant with the Employment Equity Act (EEA) will be excluded from doing business with organs of state. 

“Designated employers must comply with Chapters II and III of the Act whereas those not designated have to comply only with Chapter II. They must attach the certificate of compliance which can only be issued by the Minister for a period of 12 months. The certificate can be revoked at any time for failure to comply.” 

He told the gathering that the certificate of compliance issued by the Minister will only be issued when the minister is satisfied that the employer has complied with the numerical targets in terms of Section 15A relevant to that employer, if the target is not achieved, the employer must have raised a reasonable ground to justify the failure.

Singh said Section 53 has been in the Act since 1998 and was not promulgated then. “And now it is promulgated and will be in force”, he said.

General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) president Mametlwe Sebei said it was clear that without any pressure, from the state, “there’s not going to be any de-racialisation of the workplace".

"The reality is that the apartheid workplace keeps reproducing itself because economic power continues to be a monopoly of white people.” 

On Zille’s comment he added that: “It ignores and is an insult to the black experience of land dispossession, colonialism and racism, including legislation to keep down any prospect of black people.” 

Save our Sacred Lands convenor Tauriq Jenkins added: “The beneficiaries of apartheid took every opportunity to disempower black communities. What's completely lost in (Zille's) statement, is that apartheid was not a fair system around which a particular group would on merit and morally earn their way through honest means whether it was economically, socially or educationally. When you talk about education you talk about a Verwoedian worldview, on a social level what it did, it augmented segregation. Most importantly every cent derived out of their era came off the back of black forced subjugation, forced removals.”

Cape Times