DA federal chairperson Helen Zille, on Tuesday, argued that black people receive the best service delivery where the DA governs.
(Lunga Mzangwe/M&G)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chair, Helen Zille, on Tuesday, argued that black people receive the best service delivery where the DA governs.
“They get the best opportunities, best public access through transport and various other things. It is far better for a poor person to end up in DA administration because they can get on the ladder of getting out of poverty,” Zille said.
“That is why the DA policies benefit the vast majority of poor black people and turn off the taps to the corrupt ANC elite who rob the poor to enrich themselves, to enrich the party and to illegally put into elections after they flee the state.”
These sentiments, however, have not been shared by the black communities that the DA governs. This includes the Western Cape, where the party has been accused of prioritising affluent suburbs and neglecting townships where black people primarily reside.
The sentiments were shared by Tshwane residents, where the party was in charge of the municipality for eight years.
Last week, the DA announced that it would table a motion in parliament to scrap the broad-based black economic empowerment policy and replace it with its Public Procurement Inclusive Bill.
It said it would lobby other parties, including its government of national unity partner, the ANC, to vote to support its bill. Still, the ANC has described the scrapping of the BBBEE as “mad”, “nonsense” and “unconstitutional”.
The broad-based BEE policy allows for preferential treatment in government procurement processes for businesses that contribute to black economic empowerment, as measured by criteria including partial or majority black ownership, hiring black employees, and contracting with black-owned suppliers.
On Tuesday, the DA unveiled its billboard in Johannesburg, which is calling for BBBEE to come to an end.
Zille argued that the BBBEE legalities are corrupt. At the same time, the party’s deputy federal chair Ivan Meyer described BEE as state-sponsored corruption, theft and fraud by “cadres”, designed to enrich only a few politically connected people.
“Are we saying black people are corrupt by tackling BBBEE? The answer is absolutely no. Every company that wants to invest in South Africa has to give out a third of its company to the ANC elites before they can even begin,” Zille told journalists in Randburg on Tuesday.
She argued that this does not empower anyone but those who have been empowered over and over again.
She said the policy then results in the investment not coming at all, adding this is why there has been no investment in mining, as people are not prepared to cooperate with corruption.
“If you pass a law that says contracts of the state must go in this way to a particular colour of people, then people will make sure that they can rig the system to benefit their friends and allies to get a big kickback in the process.”