Laurence says: “The real question, of course, is why Eskom is awarding a position like “project engineering specialist” on the basis of race at all.”——————————You’ve answered your own question. There is no reason at all, and then there is, which is why it’s a necessary evil.

Inwardly, I’m against AA because it presupposes that one person is weaker than another and needs a push, although I recognise that we need to “equate” riches across the South-African demographic rainbow.

AA is all the more wrong when one realises that it sometimes imitates the Apartheid practice whereby a job went to someone because they were white, or coloured.

There is also the hiring in of old skills to reduce the chronic shortages – but some Saffers I have met here in the UK have been approached with contract terms that basically makes it clear they are not really wanted, but rather grudgingly needed (the terms are something like ‘come back and help, and when suitable AA replacements are available, your contract will be ended’). It’s no wonder a good portion of those people are dotted around the planet.

Clearly affirmative action is being abused here.

Whether it’s Eskom or the alleged victim doing it, it makes South African AA’s flaws seem rather obvious.