Neasa, Sakeliga to approach ConCourt to appeal employment equity judgment
National Employers’ Association of South Africa (Neasa) and Sakeliga NPC have announced their intention to appeal the Gauteng High Court's dismissal of their urgent application that sought to suspend the implementation of South Africa’s new employment equity targets.
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In a statement released late Friday afternoon, 29 August, Neasa and Sakeliga declared: "We will appeal directly to the Constitutional Court to set aside the High Court’s decision and grant us the interdict requested in Part A of our application.
"Part A seeks to interdict and/or suspend the implementation of the targets and regulations, which are due for implementation from 1 September 2025."
They stated that this direct appeal to the country's apex court will "for procedural reasons" also be "supplemented with a parallel appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal".
Furthermore, they said: "We are continuing as planned with the second part of the court case to stop the Act and quotas regardless of the urgent (first) part of the application. Part B seeks to have several sections of the Employment Equity Act declared unconstitutional and have the Minister of Employment and Labour’s regulations and sectoral numerical targets set aside."
Read the highlights of the High Court judgment here:
Meanwhile, John Botha, joint-CEO of Global Business Solutions has urged employers not to wait and see if the courts will buy them more time: "That time has run out. The judgment is a reminder that compliance cannot be suspended by wishful thinking or urgent applications; it is now the law."
He reminded organisations that "from 1 September, 18 sectors must have equity plans aligned with the gazetted numerical targets".
"My message to business leaders is simple: get out of the courtroom and back into the boardroom. Transformation is now part of the operating environment. The risk is not in acting — it’s in failing to act."