KWAZULU-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has insisted the policy that bans government departments from employing people older than 35 had been scrapped.
Ntuli’s actions back calls from Rise Mzansi, Save SA and other sectors of society countrywide, including Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, to scrap the policy.
During his visit to Edendale in Pietermaritzburg on September 10 to address the issue of crime, whose main culprits are unemployed people of various age groups, Ntuli said the age of 35 as the cut-off for employment would no longer apply in his government.
“I am saying that the matter of discriminating against people above the age of 35 when it comes to employment is no longer applicable in KwaZulu-Natal.
“If there is someone with that policy, he/she must review it,” said Ntuli.
He said people who were 40 did not qualify for an old age grant.
“What do you want that person to do? Do you want those people to live out of crime since you are not going to employ them?” he said.
Ntuli said the matter had been discussed in his cabinet and it was agreed that those who still had the policy in place must do away with it.
It was not clear when the policy was developed and its objective, but it does contravene the Employment Equity Act, which states: “It is illegal to advertise for someone to be between a certain age, ‘applicants must be 25-35’, or indeed, insist that applicants must include their age, or marital status when applying for a job.”
The MKP promised during its May 29 election campaign that, should it take over the government, it would do away with the policy.
“Vote MK (to) change of employment policy that if you are over 35 you cannot be employed in all industries,” the party said in an election pamphlet.
Independent candidate Blessings Ramoba also campaigned for the elections promising to do away with “employment age 35 restrictions”.
Save SA Civil Movement has used social media to campaign for the scrapping of the policy.
Its spokesperson Tebogo Mashelompane described the policy as discriminatory, dating back to the apartheid era, when white children would complete school and graduate from university at an early age because of the quality of their education.
“They would start working while they are still young and encouraged to leave employment to start their businesses,” he said.
He said under the current government this age restriction was still applied by the government when it came to employment in certain fields such as police, army and healthcare.
“If you look at the education or police departments, application forms target people who are not above 35. The army is targeting 23-year-olds.
“It also applies in the private sector although they won’t specify the age, but would say they were looking for young people,” he said.
He said the policy contributed to crime involving unemployable people.
“At the age of 40, you are unemployed although you are educated. What else can you do?
“It contributes to crime because when you talk about crime, you not only talk about robbing a bank or burglary.
“There is a professional crime where people end up in white collar crime because they are educated but unemployable,” said Mashelompane.
He said physical fitness based on age was a baseless justification for using the restriction to discriminate when it came to recruitment of police and army officers.
“Our call is to give people equal opportunity and let them fail fitness tests on their own.
“You cannot stop people from applying for jobs based on fitness because how do you measure somebody’s fitness?
“Do you know that there are people who are 40 are more fit than people who are 24 years old? Look at the current youth now smoking hubbly bubbly but you find somebody who is 40 years who is not smoking hubbly bubbly. That person is more fit than a person who is smoking hubbly bubbly,” said Mashelompane.
The offices of Public Service and Administration and the Premier did not responded to questions sent to them.