OPINION: The Unspoken Truths of Racism in the South African Workplace
Loading player...
GUEST – Julia Makhubela is the CEO of 54TwentyFour, a diversity, inclusion and equity firm
Makhubela Last year, a World Bank report concluded that South Africa is the “most unequal country in the world,” ranking us first out of 164 nations. In my experience, I have to agree. I worked my way to a senior position at a large corporate before leaving to run a diversity and inclusion agency, 54twentyfour, which I own today. I have intimate knowledge of the way private firms operate, and have seen the makeup of their staff. There is still a “cappuccino effect” in play: at the bottom mostly brown, and at the top, mostly white. Indeed, transformation has been almost exclusively limited to the lower rungs of the working ladder.
At a CEO level, little has changed. As a result, race remains the single biggest determinant of quality of life in this country. How is this possible in a nation that has enjoyed thirty years of emancipated governance? How is this possible in a country that has pushed B-BBEE (henceforth BEE) laws to the forefront of the economic machine? The answer is rooted in social hierarchies that persist unchanged. To look and speak as if you’re from a private school? That still holds more sway than to present as someone who comes from the townships. And this is just one example. Social stigmas are everywhere in South Africa, and they almost always benefit white people. While they’re largely unacknowledged, they’re tacit realities of everyday life.
Makhubela Last year, a World Bank report concluded that South Africa is the “most unequal country in the world,” ranking us first out of 164 nations. In my experience, I have to agree. I worked my way to a senior position at a large corporate before leaving to run a diversity and inclusion agency, 54twentyfour, which I own today. I have intimate knowledge of the way private firms operate, and have seen the makeup of their staff. There is still a “cappuccino effect” in play: at the bottom mostly brown, and at the top, mostly white. Indeed, transformation has been almost exclusively limited to the lower rungs of the working ladder.
At a CEO level, little has changed. As a result, race remains the single biggest determinant of quality of life in this country. How is this possible in a nation that has enjoyed thirty years of emancipated governance? How is this possible in a country that has pushed B-BBEE (henceforth BEE) laws to the forefront of the economic machine? The answer is rooted in social hierarchies that persist unchanged. To look and speak as if you’re from a private school? That still holds more sway than to present as someone who comes from the townships. And this is just one example. Social stigmas are everywhere in South Africa, and they almost always benefit white people. While they’re largely unacknowledged, they’re tacit realities of everyday life.
