Rumours have abounded for many years that the government has an unofficial view on the definition of black and that there are in fact degrees of blackness. Perhaps Julius "I wouldn't know a hammer if it hit me" Malema was actually echoing this same policy when he bleated "We [black people] cannot just be reduced to security and the very important issue of economy is given to minorities,". The KZN Department of Public Works has gone so far as to publicly state that if you are African you are blacker than any other type of black person (this reminds of a quote from BB King which went along the lines of "if you black and you play the blues then you black twice (sic)").
A client of mine sent me a confusing document known as ANNEXURE A KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works Application for Registration on the Professional Service Providers Roster. Unless you are interested in being a PSP I wouldn't bother reading anything other than pages 11 and 12.
Page 11 gives a variety of definitions, most of them derived from the PPPFA 2001 regulations. They also define what a black person is (and this is a perversion of the PPPFA combined with a liberal dipping into the B-BBEE Act)
Black person: a South African citizen who, due to the apartheid policy that had been in place, had no franchise in national elections prior to the introduction of the Constitution of the RSA, 1983 (Act 110 of 1983) or the Constitution of the RSA, 1993 (Act 200 of 1993) (the interim Constitution).
Note: Such persons are commonly referred to as Coloureds, Indians and Africans
The underlined section is my emphasis.
This is where the alarm bells should start sounding. To the best of my knowledge (and my knowledge is the best) there is only one act that proffers a definition of a black person and that is the B-BBEE Act (a generic term for African, Coloureds and Indians). This same act has been largely ignored by all government departments because they are shackled by the PPPFA (and the constitution, although Lester argues to the contrary). The DPW is therefore limited by the definitions of the PPPFA which only speaks of HDI.
As you read further those gongs in your head should really start pounding because the KZN DPW now starts getting into the meat of blacker than black with their Priority population group: an individual who is a South African citizen and who falls into a population group that had no franchise in national elections prior to the introduction of the 1983 constitution and tricameral parliamentary system. (Note: Such persons are commonly referred to as Africans).
For those of you who were not around in the '80s, the tricameral parliamentary system created two other houses that extended franchise rights to Coloureds and Indians [House of Assembly (White representatives), House of Representatives (Coloured representatives), House of Delegates (Indian representatives)]. It was a complete joke andwas perhaps a sign of how demented PW actually was. You'll notice that African voters are excluded from this.
In other words – African is now a "Priority population group." The strange thing is that there is no single piece of legislation (comment if you think I am wrong) that backs this up. The EE Act places a greater emphasis on African people but that is because of their statistical representation in South Africa.
But it gets better on page 12. They have created a points' system that confirms that African is the blackest of black.
See what I mean.
I am conflicted by this, I can see where that are going with it, it is an attempt to encourage greater African representation because they are still the poorest of the poor. But they do not have the legislative mandate to do this. This is actually discriminatory and as such must be viewed as unconstitutional (especially section 217).
I'll leave the last word to Nigel Tufnel who after examining a black album cover concludes that it can only be "none, none more black" (starts at 1:13)
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