EE REPORTING HALVES AS SOUTH AFRICA'S "GLASS CEILING" AT THE TOP HARDENS

New CEE baseline data shows a 48.4% drop in employer reporting, White representation still up to seven times EAP at Top Management, and disability inclusion stuck at 1.3% — even as six major court challenges to the EE Amendment Act remain unresolved.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's employment equity reporting system declined as a result of the focus now being on employers employing above 50 employees (no longer annual revenue as one of the factors of determining designation), with the number of designated employers submitting EE reports falling by 48.4% — from 29,269 to just 15,090 — according to newly analysed baseline data from the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE). Global Business Solutions (GBS), the transformation, labour law and AI capacitation advisory, warns that a near-halving of reports in a single year sets a baseline for the next 5 years from which Ministerial Targets will be pursued. John Botha, Joint CEO of GBS, an newly appointed Commissioner to the Employment Equity Commission, states that "Employers cannot assume the sectoral numerical targets have gone away simply because litigation is under way. Section 53 of the EEA now ties a company's ability to do business with the state directly to its EE compliance status. Employers who fall silent on reporting or who do not make justifiable reasonable progress are putting their government contracts, and ultimately their competitiveness, at risk."

A hardening glass ceiling

The data reveals a workforce pipeline that functions well at entry and mid-career level — African and female representation is at or above national Economically Active Population (EAP) parity at Skilled and Professionally Qualified levels — but collapses at the point of promotion into senior roles. White representation at Top Management (57.1%) and Senior Management (44.1%) remains up to seven times the White EAP share, while African representation falls to less than half of its EAP share at both levels. Female representation drops from near-parity in the professional ranks to just 29.3% at Top Management.

"This is not a recruitment problem — it's a retention and promotion problem," adds Botha. "Employers who focus transformation spend purely on graduate intake will not shift these numbers. The blockage sits at the transition into leadership, and that requires succession planning, sponsorship and accountability at board level."

Disability inclusion stalled; litigation still unresolved

Representation of employees with disabilities remains flat at 1.3% of the total workforce — identical across the private sector and government, and well below the 3% five-year sectoral target across all eighteen economic sectors. Meanwhile, six major court challenges to the EE Amendment Act, 2022 and its 5-year sectoral numerical targets — brought by the Democratic Alliance, NEASA and Sakeliga, Solidarity, BUSA and the Security Association of South Africa — remain before the courts. To date, no interim relief suspending the targets has succeeded, and the Department continues to implement the amended framework in the interim.

The CCMA also recorded 2,577 unfair discrimination referrals under the EEA between April 2025 and January 2026, two-thirds of which were brought on "arbitrary grounds" — a category GBS says reflects employees' continued difficulty in linking workplace grievances to a specific listed ground under the Act.

GBS calls for renewed employer focus

GBS is urging designated employers to treat the current legal position — including the 5-year sectoral targets — as binding for compliance purposes pending the outcome of pending litigation, to audit succession pipelines for senior-level bottlenecks, and to revisit disability inclusion strategies ahead of the next reporting cycle. "The employers who get ahead of this now, rather than waiting for the courts, will be the ones best placed to hold onto their EE Compliance Certificates — and their government business," concludes Botha.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific legal guidance on protected disclosures, employment practices, or compliance obligations, consult a qualified labour law practitioner.

© 2026 Global Business Solutions (GBS). All rights reserved.

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