Present-day South Africa doesn’t just tolerate racial classification — it formalises it.
It embeds it into paperwork, public service entry points, and compliance systems. And even now, three decades after the end of apartheid, the state still demands you identify your race before it considers your CV.
The Z83 form — the standard application for government jobs — requires applicants to specify their race, gender, and disability status before they list their qualifications. These boxes don’t come at the end. They come first. Before experience. Before skills. Before merit.
But the form is only the beginning. The entire process is structured in a way that places the burden on the applicant — not the institution. Applicants are expected to certify all documents at police stations, or pay to have them stamped at the post office or a commissioner of oaths.
They must print and submit multiple copies of their qualifications and ID documents, even for a single post. Email applications are still not accepted by some departments — physical delivery or postage remains the only option.
Then the waiting begins. Three months, if you’re lucky. Often, nothing. No response. No closure.
Response is only for those who made it — and even then, they’ll probably only hear in three months.
Worse still, the outcome is often predetermined. The post goes to someone’s relative, someone from the trade union, someone owed a favour — sexual, political, or otherwise. Or it’s already been sold, quietly, behind the scenes.
The application process is simply there to tick boxes: to show that the job was “advertised,” and that there was a “fair” process. It’s not merit-based. It’s not transparent. It’s not real.
Years ago in Pietermaritzburg, I watched as Z83 forms and CVs littered the street, blown by the wind outside a SASSA office. Applications dumped, whether by neglect or design. Pages people paid to print. Hopes, effort, and dignity — scattered like rubbish.
This isn’t transformation — and whoever said transformation was about race?
It should have always been about merit.
What you have here is administrative theatre — costly, degrading, and largely performative.
And it continues, unchanged.
The post It’s 2025 — and you still need to declare your race to apply for a government job in South Africa appeared first on Political Analysis South Africa.
