The South African government has, since 2000, sought transformation of apartheid structured higher education. The demand for transformation is multi-fold since the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and the National Plan for Higher Education (2001) endeavour to rid higher education of its apartheid legacy. National and international educational and market trends place pressure on the higher education landscape of South Africa to transform. This quest for transformation has led to mergers of some historically disadvantaged institutions with historically advantaged institutions. Transformation has led to controversies at the institutions which were required to transform. One of the issues to be addressed through the merger of institutions is employment equity. The focus of this article is the requirement for employment equity at the newly merged Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). The article will focus on th