Racial quotas are about centralising ultimate power in the African National Congress (ANC) and aimed at giving it enormous power over employment at private companies.

This is according to Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen who led an anti-race quotas march in Cape Town on Wednesday.

"We have already seen how organised mafias have taken over economic sectors like the construction industry. Mark my words: if these race quotas are implemented, you will soon see mafias going to private businesses and telling them which cadres to employ, while honest and hard-working South Africans of all backgrounds are pushed even deeper into suffering,” Steenhuisen told a group of DA supporters outside Parliament.

Steenhuisen told his supporters that the ANC had already used cadre deployment to loot, collapse service delivery, and reserve jobs in the public sector.

"Now, the 'Race Quota Act' will give the ANC enormous power over employment at private companies. This Act is not about empowerment or equality. It is about centralising the ultimate power in the ANC. The power to decide who should be employed, and who should starve," he said.

In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020 into law, which empowers the Department of Labour to set new transformation targets for different industries.

Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi recently released the targets for 11 sectors, that have to be achieved in five years.

Targets for African, Indian, white and coloured employees in top and senior management, as well as for skilled and professionally qualified positions, were put forward. There are different targets for men and women, and there are also targets for people with disabilities.

There are also two sets of targets – nationally and provincially. Companies that operate throughout the country must comply with the national targets.

So, for example, the top management of a national manufacturing company has to be 35% African (22% male, 13% female), 4% coloured (2.5% male, 1.5% female), 1% Indian (0.7% male, 0.4% female) and 8% white (4.5% male, 3.5% female).

Companies that employ fewer than 50 employees, irrespective of their annual turnover, don't have to comply with the targets.

Responding to written parliamentary questions, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi denied that there were any race quotas in the Employment Equity Amendment Bill.

DA MP Michael Cardo wanted details on the Bill and how the race quotas were calculated.

"I sincerely have no details of the Bill that I have no knowledge off. In the department, we are currently busy looking as some gaps that may be there in some of our labour laws. These have not reached Parliament yet," Nxesi said.

"As they are busy deliberated at Nedlac level. Once those deliberations are accordingly processed, I have no doubt in my mind that they will reach Parliament and at that stage you will once again have an opportunity of adding your voice."

In separate response to Cardo, Nxesi said South Africa no longer had “the racist apartheid government that used to establish the racial benchmarks".