Jacques Maritz
South Africa’s labour landscape is entering a new phase of accountability with the Employment Equity Amendment Act of 2025. The act introduces tougher compliance requirements and sector-specific targets that call for operational transformation. Employers must now rethink how they hire, promote and report, while proving measurable progress toward equity.
As focus shifts, Temporary Employment Services (TES) providers are becoming the bridge between compliance and capability, helping businesses meet their obligations with the agility and expertise the legislation now requires.
One of the biggest updates is the redefinition of what makes a company a “designated employer”. Previously, companies with more than 50 employees or meeting a turnover threshold were designated, but the new rules remove the turnover factor. Now, only companies with more than 50 employees are duty-bound to comply. This lightens the regulatory load for smaller businesses, but places a heavier responsibility on medium and large employers to actively drive equity in their workplaces.
In the past, benchmarks were national or provincial, but now, employers must measure progress against targets tailored to their industry and the specific roles within it. This ensures that transformation is meaningful and aligned with the realities of different sectors, and forces businesses to understand where they are and where they need to go to meet these targets.
From 1 September 2025, designated employers must prepare five-year employment equity plans. These plans must align with sector-specific targets and be submitted annually using the official reporting forms. Employers who fall short of their goals must provide a clear explanation.
Government contracts have become a powerful lever for compliance. To bid for work, companies now need a Certificate of Compliance, showing that they have submitted their Employment Equity (EE) reports on time, made measurable progress toward sector targets, complied with the National Minimum Wage Act, and avoided unfair discrimination findings from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) over the past 12 months. In effect, this makes equitable practices a gateway to business opportunities: Companies cannot afford to ignore compliance if they want to compete for government work.
For employers, this means employment equity must level up beyond annual reporting and become a central part of workforce strategy. Recruitment, promotions and staffing decisions all need to be aligned with transformation goals. Companies that treat equity as a check-box exercise risk penalties, reputational damage and missed opportunities.
One of the challenges for businesses when it comes to change is turning legal obligations into practical, day-to-day operations. The TES providers play a key role here, expanding recruitment reach, helping to find candidates from underrepresented groups and build pipelines that meet sector-specific targets. For temporary or short-term roles, TES providers manage placements so that reporting requirements are met, ensuring these employees are accurately included in workforce statistics when necessary.
Here, payroll systems are equally important. They make it easier to submit the information needed for annual EE reporting and maintain audit-ready records by embedding compliance into operations, turning legislation from a potential burden into a practical framework for action.
Employment equity is now part of the bottom line. Companies can no longer treat it as an isolated human resource (HR) function; it must be woven into how people are hired, managed and developed. Partnering with TES providers gives businesses the compliance structure and agility they need to keep pace with shifting regulations and workforce demands.
Equity, when lived daily, becomes the engine of sustainable growth.
■ Maritz is a national sales and service manager in the employment management sector.
