The Department of Defence is apparently trying to reverse racial quotas in its recruitment.
The latest South African Survey by the SA Institute of Race Relations shows that the military plans to employ more whites and fewer blacks.
The defence force admits there is a shortage of white personnel but says its recruitment drives are not based on racial quotas.
The survey shows the department’s employment equity targets are changing:
The black employment target from the current 72% to 65%;
Coloured employment from 13% to 10%;
Indian employment will remain at 1%;
The target for whites will increase from 14% to 24%.
The Institute of Race Relations figures are based on information contained in the defence department’s annual report and on its own calculations.
Stats SA’s 2015 midyear population estimates show that blacks represent 80% of the population, coloureds 8.8%, whites 8.2% and Indians 2.4%.
The research shows that there are huge numbers of vacancies in the military’s land and air defence, medical, and defence intelligence services.
The military currently has 57141 black, 10991 white, 10099 coloured and 916 Indian members.
SA National Defence Union national secretary Pikkie Greeff said the military found itself in this position because “when they started awarding exit packages they let go too many of the racial groupings that they now want to increase”.
Defence Department spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini admitted that there was a shortage of full-time white members but denied there were plans to change racial quotas.
After more than 60 years, is the end of the road near for affirmative action in college admissions?
The idea of using race to help determine who gets a seat in public colleges has been under fire for decades. Eight states have essentially banned the practice, and a Michigan case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could prompt others to do the same.
College officials nationwide got a wake-up call last June from the high court, which set a high bar for using race as part of a complex admissions program in Texas. Many observers say the combined weight of the two cases could finally push state universities to find another way to promote diversity.
“All the trends are pointing against the continued use of race in admissions,” says Richard Kahlenberg of the Washington, D.C.-based Century Foundation, a liberal think tank. Kahlenberg has for years advocated using family income,not race, as a way to ensure that public K-12 schools and colleges have a diverse student body.
A year after hearing Fisher, the justices last October heard arguments in a case from Michigan, where a 2006 state constitutional amendment banned racial preferences in public university admissions. Seven other states — California, Florida, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma and New Hampshire — do the same, and about 29% of students live in states where affirmative action is banned, Kahlenberg estimates.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says the state’s position was summed up well by Chief Justice John Roberts, who said the best way to stop racial discrimination “is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
“Our constitution requires equal treatment in college admissions, which is an expression by 58% of Michigan voters in 2006 that says it is fundamentally wrong to treat people differently based on race or the color of their skin,” Schuette says. “It’s just wrong.”
A July 2013 study by Georgetown University scholars Anthony Carnevale and Jeff Strohl found that in 2009, white students were more “over-represented” among the USA’s 468 most selective colleges than they had been in 1995. From 1995 to 2009, the nationwide share of young people ages 18-24 who were white dropped 6 percentage points, from 68% to 62%. But whites’ share of freshman slots at the USA’s most elite colleges dropped just 2 points during that same period, from 77% to 75%.
Another study, by Orfield’s Civil Rights Project, found that 15 years after California’s ban on racial preferences went into effect, increased competition has dropped the share of black in-state high school graduates admitted to UCLA from 47.6% of applicants to 13.7%; the percentage of Latino students admitted dropped from 54.9% of applicants to 14.8%. The percentage of white students admitted also dropped, but not as sharply.
Kahlenberg says the string of affirmative action cases has pushed universities to find alternative ways to create diverse freshman classes. He notes that Texas’ 10% rule has resulted in higher levels of black and Latino representation. Other state systems have gotten similar results by eliminating preferences for children of alumni and bolstering financial aid, among other measures. These strategies have led to more racially and economically diverse classes “in a way the Supreme Court can’t touch,” he says. “I think that’s the future of affirmative action.”
Recent surveys have found that Americans don’t like using race in admissions, Kahlenberg says, “but on the other hand, Americans don’t want to see universities and American higher education re-segregated.”
A decision in the Michigan case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, is expected this spring. If a majority of eight justices rule in Michigan’s favor (Elena Kagan, a former solicitor general, recused herself), it could prompt opponents of affirmative action in other states to push for similar bans.
But if the ban is overturned, states such as California again could weigh race in college admissions — and not a moment too soon, Orfield says. Admissions pressures there have become “very intense.” He notes that UCLA alone last year received nearly 100,000 applications. “It’s a big state, it’s growing … and we haven’t been growing the higher education system.” – USA Today
Clad in a tracksuit with an image of his No1 superhero Spiderman, six-year-old abuse victim Jimmy (not his real name) and his peers play happily on the grounds of the Jakaranda Children’s Home.
They are oblivious of the predicament facing the place they call home – it is not black enough.
Corporate donors that covered 70% of the Pretoria home’s more than R25-million annual running costs have pulled out because, the centre says, the majority of children it houses are white.
Jimmy and 350 other children were removed from their parents because of abandonment, neglect and emotional and physical abuse.
They will soon have to survive without privately funded child development programmes, or worse, they could find themselves without a home.
“There’s nothing we can do about it . it’s a sad situation,” the shelter’s marketing executive Elzane van der Merwe says.
The children are victims of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, she says. The act stipulates that for companies to be allocated BBBEE points, they must donate to charities whose beneficiaries make up at least 75% quota of the previously deprived race groups.
At the Jakaranda shelter, 75% of the children are white.
For the past two years, the shelter received R7.1-million in government funding a year, which has been increased to R9.1-million for this year.
However, Van der Merwe says: “Without corporate funding we cannot continue with therapy and educational and sporting programmes. These are crucial to a child’s proper development but without funding we will have to offer the basics like shelter, schooling, food and clothing.”
She said companies still donate to the home but private funding had declined by 70% in the past three years.
Van der Merwe related an incident in which a company pledged R100 000 but pulled out at the last minute after realising that the majority of children were white.
She said the home did not decide which child was placed at the home. It got applications from social workers and the children were placed at the home according to their needs by the court. – timeslive.co.za
Nearly two decades after the fall of apartheid, a black South Africa is struggling to sell high-profile, white-dominated cricket and rugby teams as “non-racial”.
Sporting authorities have reintroduced racial quotas for domestic professional teams in a bid to encourage more black Africans to emerge through the ranks
The latest to adopt quotas is cricket with the country’s six franchises ordered to field at least one black African in each starting line-up.
Teams that field more than one black player will get a cash bonus.
The only black African coach among the domestic professional teams, Geoff Toyana of the Highveld Lions, backs the idea of quotas.
“It’s not a bad thing, it’s spot-on,” Toyana said.
“Hopefully, more players will be exposed and more will play. Hopefully, in the next two to three years we will see a black African batsman playing for South Africa … or guys like Mangaliso Mosehle [of Titans] might come in as a wicketkeeper.
“You cannot explain that a population of 80% black African people cannot produce one Test player – it doesn’t make sense,” said Toyana.
Cricket officials speak of a “huge drop out” of black African players between under-19 and franchise levels.
“Black African players need to get quality and meaningful opportunities and, therefore, the incentive-based transformation policy was introduced,” said Corrie van Zyl, general manager of Cricket South Africa (CSA).
But the restoration of a quota system, two decades into democracy, is seen by observers as a sign of failure by both sporting administrators and government to develop sport among previously disadvantaged racial groups.
The problem, according to Frans Cronje of the South African Institute of Race Relations is that “we are not investing in young people”.
“How do you think players are going to be produced when the best you produce is a dusty sports field? Unless you learn to bat with a soccer ball in some dust of the Eastern Cape, you are not going to do it,” said Cronje.
Only five black Africans have played for South Africa’s national cricket side since 1991 when the country was accepted into international competitions.
“It is not a statistic that we are proud of,” admitted Van Zyl. “It shows just how important it is for us to bring many more African players through the system.”
“Next year we celebrate 20 years of democracy in our land and it is simply not acceptable for 80-plus percent of the population not to feel represented in one of our national sides.”
Previously, racial quotas generated heated debate in South Africa, but now there appears to be a general consensus.
The majority of players accept that “transformation is imperative”, said Tony Irish, chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association.
A quota system was introduced in 1999 but scrapped in 2007. Blacks remain under-represented in cricket and rugby, but dominate in football, where the national team is faring terribly.
The latest round of quota systems were adopted at a 2011 meeting of all sporting bodies and government.
Rugby quotas will take effect next year and seven players in each 22-man Vodacom Cup (a second-tier competition below the Currie Cup) squad must be black, including at least two forwards.
But the move has brought into question the possibility of sidelining other racial groups – Coloureds and Indians. Van Zyl said the early attempt at quotas was “a huge success” for the development of Coloured and Asian cricketers. – AFP
Rick Owens at Paris Fashion Week won’t get Chinese buyers
Paris fashion this week tiptoed around the scarcity of black models on the catwalk with reaction reflecting the growing controversy surrounding the issue highlighted by models Naomi Campbell and Iman.
Designers told AFP their only concern was to find models who embodied the spirit of their creations irrespective of skin colour.
And one industry professional put the lack of black faces down to a minimalist trend that has sparked a demand for Asian models.
“I don’t only do shows for white girls, but I don’t do quotas (either). I choose girls that please me,” said Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello, whose show included Asian and mixed race models.
Another designer, Damir Doma, told AFP: “I never judge anyone by skin… I’m looking for the right personality.”
Doma’s show featured one black and two Asian models but the number could me “be more or less”, he said.
“It depends on the season and the girl that comes to the casting. If she’s right for the clothes I would definitely take her,” he said.
Their comments follow a letter sent earlier this month to fashion governing bodies around the world by models Iman, Naomi Campbell and US model-turned-activist Bethann Hardison.
In their letter, the trio condemned fashion houses that used just “one or no models of colour” for a collection, saying the result was “racism”, even if it was unintentional.
Virginie Deren of the agency Ford Models Europe stressed the importance of trends in the industry.
“For the last two or three seasons, there has been a real passion for Asian models, especially Chinese ones,” she said.
Chinese consumers have become increasingly important to the fashion world as their economic power has grown in recent years.
Other trends down the years had seen black models in demand as well as Belgians and what Deren called “healthy Americans”.
“We have black models (on our books) but we are not asked for them for the catwalks (at the moment).
“It’s not racism. Things are not like that. Models have to fit in with trends (and) the current fashion is a minimalist one that the designers associate with Asian girls,” she said.
In their letter, Campbell, Iman and Hardison named dozens of labels they considered to be most at fault including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs.
“Eyes are on an industry that season after season watches fashion houses consistently use one or no models of colour,” they wrote.
“No matter the intention, the result is racism. Not accepting another based on the colour of their skin is clearly beyond aesthetic…,” they said, adding that the issue was specifically a lack of black models, not Asian ones.
Malaika Firth, 19, in Paris for her first catwalk shows, said she had not experienced any difficulties she could link to skin colour but stressed that she was mixed race, not black.
“So far so good…, I support equal opportunities,” said the half-British, half-Kenyan model who has appeared in advertising campaigns for Burberry and Prada.
Other models with more catwalk experience, however, were more nuanced.
Brazilian model Muriel Beal, 31, said that there were too few black models working in the industry.
But when asked if the lack of black faces at shows was for this reason or due to discrimination she replied: “It depends.”
Others attending shows who were not employed in the industry expressed more robust views.
Some made it clear that they would like to see a concerted effort by designers to address the issue once and for all.
French visual artist Abby Regis, said he was appalled by the situation. “It is shocking,” he said.
“You can do what you want to do but I see some designers using black models,” he said, making it clear that if it was possible for some, it should be for others.
Laura Bestle, a 23-year-old German international business student, said she suspected some fashion houses included a single black model as a way of “getting critics off their backs”.
And she said described the idea black models were not cast because they were not right for particular clothes as “just an excuse”.
In a renewed bid to bring black players into a mostly white sport, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) will introduce a stricter racial quota system in domestic rugby.
As from next year, Vodacom Cup teams will have to field seven players of colour in their 22-man squad. According to a Sport24 report, at least five of these players will have to start the match. At least two of the seven quota players will have to be forwards.
Saru chief Oregan Hoskins is hoping that the new quota system will see more black players coming through the system and playing at the top levels of Currie Cup, Super Rugby and in Tests.
“The feeling within our organisation is that we had to step in to see more black players come through. The provinces also shared our views,” Hoskins was quoted as saying by Sport24.
“To have certain targets will show that SARU is committed towards transformation. The Vodacom Cup is of critical importance to development and it has moved away from its primary aim to provide opportunities to promising young players, especially those of colour.
“The aim is to enlarge the pool of players of colour from which Currie Cup and Super Rugby coaches can pick. Hopefully, it would then also give the Springbok coach more options,” the Saru chief said.
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