The DA argued that the BEE policy had been created by white-owned big businesses to give shares to politically connected people in order to keep the status quo and benefit a few people.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will seek support from the ANC and its other government of national unity (GNU) partners when it tables its proposed Public Procurement Inclusive Bill in parliament to replace the broad-based black economic empowerment policy.
The Bill aims to replace what it called years of ineffective ANC empowerment policies that have left the majority of South Africans unemployed, impoverished and hopeless, the DA said on Monday.
The party also argued that the BEE policy had been created by white-owned big businesses to give shares to politically connected people in order to keep the status quo and benefit a few people.
The ANC says the BEE policy aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people through affirmative action, to redress the inequalities created by apartheid.
The policy provides incentives — especially preferential treatment in government procurement processes — to businesses which contribute to black economic empowerment according to several measurable criteria, including through partial or majority black ownership, hiring black employees and contracting with black-owned suppliers.
On Monday, DA head of policy Mat Cuthbert said public opinion on BEE had changed and that it was in the interests of the ANC’s own electoral fortunes to support the Bill.
“We need reform in this space. If we are actively putting in place transformation policies that are not uplifting the people that they purport to uplift, we are strangling our economy from growing, then we’ve got to say to ourselves, ‘Well, we can’t keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,’” Cuthbert said.
“Most importantly, it’s about shifting the conversation within parliament, about shifting the conversation within the GNU. It is not a stationary thing for the GNU, it’s a constant site for political contestation, for policy contestation, and for us to make sure that we are able to influence the policy agenda within the country.”
The DA is the second largest party — after the ANC — in the national coalition government formed by President Cyril Ramaphosa after his party lost its parliamentary majority in last year’s general elections, the first time since the end of apartheid rule in 1994.
Cuthbert said some in the ANC believed the party still enjoyed a monopoly on power, on truth and on policy ideas in the unity government, but this was no longer the case.
“The DA is not going to stand back and simply lap up what the ANC gives us. We’re going to take the fight [to them], whether that be in cabinet, whether that be in parliament, in order for us to shift the needle, so we can get the economy to grow.”
DA federal chair Ivan Meyer described BEE as state-sponsored corruption, theft and fraud by “cadres”, designed to enrich only a few politically connected people.
“BEE makes people poorer and we have evidence of that. In the last 30 years, BEE has made ordinary South Africans poorer and we know it is a painful experience for people to get a job where it is possible to get the job with the right policies,” Meyer said.
It is, however, unlikely that the ANC will support the DA’s proposed Bill.
In his closing remarks at an ANC national executive committee meeting two weeks ago, which deliberated on how to grow the economy, Ramaphosa reiterated that his party supported BEE policies to address the injustices of the past.
But Cuthbert argued on Monday: “The BEE model has become a key driver of corruption within our society. We have witnessed this in the widescale looting of approximately R2 billion from Tembisa Hospital and the murder of Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality’s chief auditor Mpho Mafole after submitting a scathing report relating to a R1.8 billion chemical toilets tender.”
“This clearly demonstrates how successive ANC administrations have failed to address the root causes of inequality by implementing crude race-based procurement policies to benefit themselves at the expense of the people.”
He said the DA’s Public Procurement Inclusive Bill aims to create a procurement system that encourages genuine economic empowerment by offering incentives for tangible developmental outcomes such as job creation, poverty reduction, skills enhancement and environmentally sustainable practices.
“Furthermore, the transitional measures in the Bill include the winding down of the BEE Commission over 12 months and the systematic removal of references to BEE across legislation.”
To give effect to this change, the Bill empowers the minister of trade, industry and competition to develop a simplified preference points system based on a supplier’s demonstrated contribution to inclusive development and social impact, Cuthbert said.
The DA’s alternative scorecard comprises three components: value for money, economic inclusion and disqualification criteria.
The value-for-money component assesses the cost-effectiveness, technical capacity and reliability of bidders, while the economic inclusion part assesses bidders’ demonstrable contribution towards human development, economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, inclusive communities and governance. The disqualification criteria excludes bidders if they have a proven record of fraud, corruption or misrepresentation.
The Bill, however, does not say how it would address the injustices of the past by empowering previously disadvantaged groups, which mostly include black South Africans.
Cuthbert said the DA’s approach to empowerment fundamentally differs from that of the ANC — while the latter’s policy is only for cadres, the DA’s demands no political connections.
“The DA may be in coalition with the ANC in government, but that doesn’t mean we need to agree with them all the time. We are in the GNU to represent the interests of all South Africans and we will not relent,” he said.
“It is now incumbent upon the ANC to recognise that its failed policies no longer enjoy the same public support as before. South Africans seek genuine empowerment rather than trickle-down redress. Therefore, we formally call on the ANC to do the right thing by prioritising the needs of the poor and vulnerable over their cadres.”