Consolidated Report of DEISA Case Studies

DEISA (Diversity and Equity Interventions in South Africa) was a research programme which studied
the transformation “industry” in South Africa, exploring issues such as the kinds of interventions
being undertaken under the rubric of diversity and equity, how these are experienced by people
working in organisations, the theoretical frameworks used by practitioners and, especially, how they
may or may not articulate with the quest for social justice in a democratising South Africa. The
project examined: 1) a questionnaire submitted to diversity practitioners across South Africa; and 2)
diversity interventions conducted at 12 South African organisations. These organisations included
government institutions and private-sector companies and ranged from multinationals to small,
family-owned concerns. They were situated mostly in the two major hubs of the South African
economy: Gauteng and Cape Town. Two studies were in other regions of the country: Mpumalanga
and North West Province.