Abstract
The South African labour market is characterised by a diversity of ethnic and cultural groups. The public sector is experiencing pressure from social, economic, political and legislative circles to make the workplace more representative of the population. This study investigated the affirmative action process in a national public sector department in terms of its employees' perceptions of that process. A questionnaire was developed and used as measuring instrument on a random sample of the department's employee population. Results show that the affirmative action process did influence employees' perceptions of their working life and career, and that the majority of respondents perceived the affirmative action process not to be successful.
Highlights
South Africa's history of so-called state controlled inequity played a major role in causing the main fundamental right of the National Constitution to be equality
The following are the particulars of the questionnaire: The questionnaire was developed on the basis of a thorough literature study of the theory and practice of human resource transformation and affmnative action. It contains 70 items and is divided into three sections. These are: Section A :biographical information, Section B: evaluation of perceptions relating to the transformation process, and Section C: evaluation of perceptions relating to the affirmative action process
Respondents seem to have reasonable Imowledge of the affirmative action process in the department. They feel that the different cultural backgrounds and values of personnel should be considered in the process, and that the department and the public sector as a whole apply affirmative action because of political and economic pressures
Summary
South Africa's history of so-called state controlled inequity played a major role in causing the main fundamental right of the National Constitution to be equality. De WaaI, Currie and Erasmus (1998: 153) mentions in this regard: "...there can be no doubt that the guarantee of equality lies at the very heart of the Constitution. It permeates and defmes the very ethos upon which the Constitution is premised". Most countries with a heterogeneous population composition, had to implement affirmative action at some stage in their history to redress inequalities due to unequal opportunities (Skretny, 1996). Affnmative action should be used in the national interest with the aim to support those people in the population who have
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