DA LEADER Helen Zille has fired a pre-emptive salvo ahead of the Department of Labour's report on employment equity which had previously scored her administration low.

Yesterday Zille said the release of the new study had little to do with facts but more with the ANC scoring political points ahead of next year's elections. The report will be released today.

She claimed that the previous report was factually incorrect, had used flawed methodology and was based on figures which were not provided by her administration.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant castigated the Western Cape government for being "the worst performing province in terms of race and gender in both government and the private sectors" at the release of the commission for employment equity's 12th report last year.

Zille said the province had reached all its nationally stipulated equity targets outside of the top officials who made up the senior management service which comprised heads of departments, chief directors and deputy director-generals.

The pool from which 75 of these officials, with a three-year degree and five-year management experience, were chosen meant that only 1.7% of black candidates, 2.1% of coloureds, 0.3% of Indians, and 6.3% of whites qualified.

"So if we apply the law, as it stands, our targets for the senior management service of the Western Cape would be 16.8% black, 20.7% coloured, 2.9% Indian and 59.4% white.

And instead of judging her government's performance, she said, in other lower pay brackets, 67.2% of those employed by the Western Cape were from the designated "black" groups.