Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) held a protest at the Gail Road municipal depot in Gqeberha to highlight the issue of unfair race quotas in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and submitted a memorandum, two motions and questions to the municipality. These race quotas have led to thousands of people missing out on employment opportunities in their own communities.
The memorandum to the municipality addresses the two motions submitted by DA NMB Spokesperson for Corporate Services, Cllr Annette Lovemore, to the Nelson Mandela Bay Speaker.
The memorandum also focusses on our demand for a thorough investigation surrounding the selection practices that led to the employment of 111 general workers in the Public Health Directorate in September 2025.
The DA has been informed that these appointments may have been irregular, with possible political interference in the process. Cllr Lovemore, therefore, also submitted detailed questions in this regard.
[Download memorandum and questions here and here]
The first motion we submitted calls on the municipality to scrap its current practice of prioritising race and gender targets over merit-based appointments.
The second motion deals with the fact that Nelson Mandela Bay is forced by the national government to unfairly plan the demographics of its workforce according to provincial rather than municipal demographics.
[Download motions here and here]
According to the 2022 Census, 62.7% of the City’s estimated population are black, 19.2% coloured, 15.7% white and 1.2% Asian/Indian. This is a far cry from the estimated population of the province, of which 85.7% are black, 7.6% coloured, 5.6% white and 0.5% Asian/Indian.
These statistics make it abundantly clear that this requirement to enforce provincial rather than municipal demographics severely prejudices the employment prospects of coloured, white and Indian people in particular.
We have therefore proposed that the Mayor and the City Manager commence negotiations with the Department of Employment and Labour to change this unfair demographic requirement. Council must resolve to instruct the Mayor and the Acting City Manager to invoke the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act to begin discussions on replacing provincial demographics with municipal demographics.
Should no agreement be reached, an intergovernmental dispute must be declared. If necessary, the municipality must also approach a competent court to seek amendments to the Employment Equity Act and its regulations to allow municipal demographics to guide future employment targets.
We are firm in our stance on race quotas. The DA is in support of the principle of non-racialism, and we reject the categorisation of South Africans along race-based lines.
The DA continues to fight for fair access to jobs and against any legislation and policy that discriminates against any group on the basis of race and detracts from the goal to get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.