B-BBEE Commission slams DA's 'sinister ploy to repeal history of racial discrimination'

THE DA’s discomfort with the notion of ‘race’ in policymaking undermines its credibility on transformation, says the B-BBEE Commission in response to the party’s proposed “Economic Inclusion for All” Bill.

The DA’s Economic Inclusion for All Bill, introduced to replace the existing BEE policy, aims to remove race as a determining factor, and replace it with a needs-based approach.

The party argues that BEE, since its introduction in 2003 as a redress policy for apartheid-era economic inequalities, has been ineffective and has primarily benefited a connected elite, leaving the majority of South Africans impoverished and unemployed.

As mandated to oversee and promote compliance with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act 46 of 2013, the B-BBEE Commission said it was compelled to the DA’s proposed Bill. 

It said the proposal to replace the B-BBEE Act anchored on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) poses a serious threat to the constitutional foundations of the country’s democracy and its commitment to equality through laws.

“It is conceptually flawed to counterpose the imperative for redress and transformation through B-BBEE with global frameworks such as SDGs, which guide countries to build just and transformed societies. While SDGs are necessary global standards to guide the building of just and equitable societies, they are high-level generic aspirations which require translating into domestic legislation and policies informed by national circumstances, which is a role already fulfilled by the B-BBEE Act and other existing frameworks in South Africa.”

It said beneath the dressing of the DA’s proposed Bill in global SDGs colours lies a sinister ploy to repeal the history of racial discrimination in South Africa and the transformative, unifying mission of the country’s Constitution.

“For instance, the DA’s proposed Bill attacks the preferential procurement framework, disregarding that as one of South Africa’s key transformation policies, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) governing state procurement establishes general principles of fairness and competitiveness, while also making provision for preference-based procurement to advance equality and redress past discrimination, as provided for in Section 217 of the Constitution of the Republic.

“The party’s persistent argument that race should no longer be referenced in addressing inequality is both ahistorical and empirically unsound. To paper over ‘race’ as a concrete and enduring reality in South Africa is to overlook the very essence of what the Constitution seeks to address — the creation of an economy that truly belongs to all. Sidestepping this issue undermines the nation’s ongoing effort to build an inclusive society and a shared economic future.”

Cape Times