Last month the Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL) announced plans to file a lawsuit against Huawei South Africa and its failure towards transformation goals as regards its make up of local talent.

In order to avoid any legal action, Huawei South Africa began negotiations with the Department of Employment and Labour, specifically focusing on its employment equity plan.

Now both parties have reached a settlement following a meeting yesterday and new plans have been outlined for the Chinese firm to meet in the coming years.

To that end, “The Department has accepted Huawei South Africa’s employment equity plan which addresses equitable representation of South Africans to above 50% within 3 years, especially from designated groups as defined in the Employment Equity Act,” Huawei explained in a press release sent to Hypertext.

“In a joint attempt to address South Africa’s digital divide and ICT skills gap, Huawei and DoEL have agreed to collaborate on skilling the unemployed, which is an investment in youth upskilling and employment; an important pillar in achieving the country’s targets for economic growth, particularly in digital technologies,” it added.

To Huawei South Africa’s credit, the company has been doing more than most technology organisations in terms of skills development locally, with its TVET initiatives in particular worthy of singling out.

“The Development Programme, which includes internships, aligns with the duration of the employment equity plan period, and will draw on candidates from the designated groups, especially women and those from rural areas, sourced from the DoEL data base,” the press released highlighted.

At this stage it is unclear what the current makeup of local talent at Huawei South Africa is, so it remains to be seen how much effort will be needed in order to meet the 50 percent-plus objective outlined over the next three years.

Either way, we will be eager to see what this settlement yields in 2025.