TLU SA is extremely concerned about the recently published Final Sector Target Regulations and the Employment Equity Regulations, 2025, as announced by the Minister of Employment and Labour on 15 April. These regulations, which form part of the Employment Equity Amendment Act of 2022 that came into effect on 1 January 2025, compel employers in 18 identified economic sectors to meet so-called “numerical targets” based on racial classification.
What is presented on paper as a system for “equal representation” is, in reality, an ideological drive that shows no grasp of the actual challenges facing the South African labour market — particularly within the agricultural sector. According to Bennie van Zyl, general manager of TLU SA, these new race-based targets are just another attempt by the government to shift the blame for its own policy failures.
“For three decades we’ve had a government that fails to understand that an economy cannot be built on race and coercion. The consequences of cadre deployment, black economic empowerment, and the neglect of education and skills development are evident in every corner of society. State institutions are paralysed, service delivery is disrupted, and now the government wants to fix what it broke through more administrative prescriptions.”
Van Zyl further argues that the economy functions on voluntary participation — not enforced quotas. “You cannot compel businesses to comply with racial numerical targets without taking the specific context of each sector into account. In agriculture, jobs are becoming scarcer, and farmers often struggle to sustain their own families through farming alone. These regulations do not only contradict the core principles of a free-market economy — they are simply not practically feasible.”
Experience has already shown that farmers, despite immense economic and infrastructural pressures, continue to create jobs, transfer skills, and support farm workers — mostly without government aid. Now, these very same employers will be penalised for failing to meet new racial targets, unless they can prove “justifiable reasons”.
Van Zyl warns that these so-called justifiable reasons are subject to the judgement of authorities who often have no understanding of the industry. “Who decides whether your reason is valid? A civil servant who has never set foot on a farm? There are already far too many examples of how administration is used as a weapon against productive citizens. These new regulations merely add more ammunition for such abuse.”
Ironically, the new regulations undermine the government’s own objectives. In terms of Section 53 of the Employment Equity Act, the state will only contract with entities that meet the new targets — yet many productive agricultural entrepreneurs and suppliers will now be excluded from state contracts, precisely because they cannot adjust their farming operations to match current racial demographics.
“How does the state expect to maintain food security, fight unemployment, and stimulate economic growth if it pushes productive citizens out of the system? This is a policy that not only contradicts sound economic practices — it undermines the country’s future.”
TLU SA believes that true economic progress is only possible within a policy framework that ensures safety, opportunities, and freedom of choice. Entrepreneurs must be encouraged to initiate projects that genuinely create employment, rather than being hampered by racial classification and regulation.
“If the government truly wants to see change, it must start by radically improving education and training, encouraging skills development, and creating a business-friendly environment where competence, not colour, is prioritised. That is how you build a labour market that welcomes all — not just those who tick the right box.”These regulations affect everyone who provides employment, produces food, and keeps the wheels of the economy turning. We will explore all avenues to question the legality, feasibility, and fairness of these regulations.
