South Africa; the pre, during and post-era of Apartheid

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South Africa; the pre, during and post-era of Apartheid

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that was imposed through legislation by the National Party (NP), the name of the government in South Africa during 1948 to 1994. During the years of 1948- 1974, a succession of 25 acts were legislated and resulted in an institutionalized racial discrimination, authorizing the people of South Africa to be racially classified according to the color of their skin: White, Colored, Asian or Indian, and Black (African) (Boddy-Evans, 2008). The social status and allocation of benefits within the Apartheid segregation ranged in the same order as the aforementioned racial identities; a white citizen was allocated the highest status while a Black citizen was considered to be at the bottom of the social status pyramid (Archibong & Adejumo, 2013).
The Apartheid legislation stated how and where the different racial identities could and should live, work, receive education, travel and socialize and the cornerstone of the legislation was designed for the white population of South Africa to be favorably treated over the “non-white” population (Archibong & Adejumo, 2013). The daily life of a “non-white” citizen involved not being allowed to enter professional practices, business areas or other areas that was designated for “White people only” and being rejected to jobs that was classified for “Whites only” (Archibong & Adejumo, 2013).
Furthermore, the education accessible for Black people was designed to adjust and prepare the Black population to a life in the laboring class rather than being given the same unconditionally designed education that was given to the White population (Archibong & Adejumo, 2013). Additionally, the women of the black population had very limited access to any education, were deprived from the right to own property and generally had very limited or no legal rights at all (Shepherd, 1994). During the Apartheid era, 10% of the total population existed of Whites, and those 10% possessed more than 80% of the total area of land within the country of South Africa (Shepherd, 1994).

The Four Dimensions

Dimension 1: Organizations’ approach to B-BBEE
The imbalances and inequality in the country of South Africa, deeply rooted in the segregated treatment of racial identities, made the new government under former President Nelson Mandela to enforce the policies of Affirmative Action under the name The Employment Equity Act (EEA) 55 (1998). The intention with the affirmative action policies in South Africa was to redress the racial as well as gender imbalances that prevailed the country since the Apartheid Era. By the enactment and implementation of affirmative action, the government aimed to enable the formerly disadvantaged, commonly denoted as the designated groups in the first section of the Employment
Equity Act No. 55 of 1998 (South African Government, 1998), to possess the same benefits and living standards that the Whites were privileged with during the Apartheid era. The target group and beneficiaries of the affirmative action policies encompassed “Black people”- a racial identity assigned to Africans, Colored (an individual with a mixed-race parentage) and Indian (The Employment Equity Act 55, 1998).
In 2003, a complementing affirmative action policy was enacted under the name Broad- Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). The act had one main focus: to redress the historic inequalities within the country by supporting the previously disadvantaged groups to start their own businesses or become part of already existing organizations (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003).
The South African government defined the B-BBEE as an “integrated and coherent socio-economic process that directly contributes to the economic transformation of South Africa and brings about significant increases in the numbers of Black people that manage, own and control the country’s economy, as well as significant increases in income” (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003, p.2). In 2007, the BBBEE was further complemented with a Code of Good Practice Act. It encompassed sections of the generic Black Economic Empowerment Scorecard involving elements
such as employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development, management and ownership (Brundin et al., 2009; Code of Good Practice, 2007). It was first until the Code of Good Practice Act was implemented in 2007, that companies started to working actively with fulfilling the requirements included in the B-BBEE act (Juggernath et al., 2011). The years between 2003-2007 functioned as a period of creating awareness and understanding for the act at the common South African company, rather than actually fulfilling the requirements behind the act (Juggernath et al., 2011).

READ BRONFENBRENNER’S ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY (1979)

1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 BB-BEE in South Africa
1.3 Problem discussion
1.4 Delimitations
1.5 Perspective
1.6 Definitions
1.7 Thesis chapter overview
2 Frame of Reference
2.1 South Africa; the pre, during and post-era of Apartheid
2.2 The Four Dimensions
2.3 Opportunity gap within the Frame of Reference
3 Methodology and Method
3.1 Philosophy of research
3.2 Research approach and design
3.3 Literature review
3.4 Empirical material collection
3.5 Company overview
3.6 Qualitative study
3.7 Analysis method
3.8 Discussion of research quali
4 Empirical Findings
4.1 Participants’ profiles
4.2 Dimension 1: Organizations’ approach to B-BBEE
4.3 Dimension 2: Group Identity within B-BBEE
4.4 Dimension 3: Organizational Cultur
4.5 Dimension 4: Integration & Diversity
5 Analysis
5.1 Dimension 1: Organizations’ approach towards B-BBEE
5.2 Dimension 2: Group identity within B-BBEE
5.3 Dimension 3: Organizational Culture
5.4 Dimension 4: Group Integration and Diversity
6 Conclusion