The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Today is Friday, July 7^th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga

In May of this year, 2023, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020. This bill amends the EEA, the Employment Equity Acts of 1998, which demands that employers have an equity plan reaching numerical goals for certain designated groups. This came two months before the recent landmark case in the United States, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, whereby the US Supreme Court considered race-based college admissions to be unconstitutional.

For decades, the EEA in South Africa has been a paragon of affirmative action policies, a term first used in the 1950’s urging organizations to take “affirmative action” to ensure applicants for employment be treated fairly, without regard to race, religion or sex.

It’s possible the motives for such policies were pure in the beginning. South Africa does have a legacy of apartheid, the forced discrimination against blacks and other cultural groups by using arbitrary laws to keep them out of jobs, restaurants and schools. The thinking was that because certain people were discriminated against in the past, they should be given preferential treatment in the present to essentially balance the books.

But as James 4:17 shows us, two wrongs never make a right. Replacing old wrongs with new wrongs isn’t good policy and certainly isn’t Christian. Governments around the world have been learning this the hard way. Sadly, nations that have enforced affirmative action policies, including South Africa, Nigeria and other African countries, have been slow to learn that affirmative action does not help a nation.

Affirmative action goes by differing names. In Nigeria it is called “reflecting the federal character”. In the UK, “positive discrimination”. Sadly, it has not become a call for simple non-discrimination. Non-discrimination is something everyone could agree with and rejoice over. Nor has affirmative action encouraged mere equality of opportunity. Rather, it has forced equality of result.

In the past, it was this: “Employer, you must hire without regard to race or gender.” Now it has become: “Employer, must hire with regard to race or gender.” It has encouraged “quotas”, though the terms of choice today are “goals” and “targets”, but the idea is the same. Employers may not hire employees and universities may not enrol students based simply on merit. They must consider race, gender, sexuality and religion.

This will cause severe damage to a nation. Here are some reasons why.

First, affirmative action is inherently racist. In fact, it may be the most glaring example in the world today of systemic racism. We must distinguish between racism of the heart and systemic racism. Racism of the heart will never leave this fallen world until Jesus returns. No government policy can force different cultural groups to love each other. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do that. Only the gospel can rid our hearts of sinful racial vainglory.

Systemic racism, in contrast, refers to racial or gender discrimination written into formal law. It is racism on the books. You can look it up. You can read about it. Where would we find something like that today? Affirmative action—where government forces schools and employers to enrol and hire certain people, not based on their merit but on their sex or skin colour. There is no reason, for example, that a woman should be hired over a more qualified man simply because she is a woman. Scripture opposes this because God opposes this, who—according to Romans 2:11—shows no partiality.

Second, affirmative action is inconsistent. If government demands that employers hire according to a certain racial or gender makeup, why doesn’t it demand employees, students and consumers do the same? To be consistent, mustn’t they demand that John go to restaurants representing an equal ratio and that Siphiso invite to his birthday party an equality of genders? To be sure, no governments today are demanding such infringements on personal rights. But the question is, if equality is the standard, why not?

Third, affirmative action encourages a victim mindset. It pushes people to identify with disadvantaged groups, even if they don’t belong there. The examples of fraud are endless whereby bad actors have tried to enter a particular disenfranchised group in order to reap their benefits. This is one reason why single parent homes are only increasing.

There are a dozen more negative consequences to affirmative action, which we’ll address next week. For now, it is important for us to remember that the solution to all of this is freedom through Christ. Christian societies are the freest societies because Jesus has come to set us free by mooring us to his perfect commands in Scripture. This means out with preferential treatment and in with a free-market society that moves forward based on character and merit.

The renowned economist Thomas Sowell said it best, “When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”

And that’s it for The Africa Review in Five on this Friday, July 7th in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe to the Missionary Minds podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I’m Yamikani Katunga. Be not weary in well-doing.