DA's provocative election billboard takes aim at ANC's BEE policy

The DA's ongoing tensions with its coalition partner, the ANC, reached a new height on Tuesday when the party unveiled a billboard on Johannesburg's N1 highway attacking the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy.

The DA last week introduced its Economic Inclusion for All Bill, which seeks to replace Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) with a “race-neutral” and “needs-based” system aimed at tackling poverty and promoting “economic inclusion for all.”

The bill has been rejected by the ANC, which is adamant that the BEE will not be scrapped.

The billboard, which was unveiled by the DA's Helen Zille, reads “BEE made ANC elites rich, and left SA poor. Choose real opportunities for all! Vote DA”.

Mat Cuthbert, the DA's head of policy, defended the billboard's message. 

"This advertisement is telling the truth about what many South Africans already supposedly know – that BEE has failed under the ANC," Cuthbert said on Tuesday. 

He painted a stark picture of the policy's alleged shortcomings.

"It has made a handful of politically connected individuals wealthy, while the rest of the country has been left behind. For three decades, this policy has been sold as empowerment, but it has delivered the opposite."

Cuthbert's critique extended to the societal impact, highlighting widespread economic hardship. 

"Millions remain locked out of the economy, with 12 million South Africans unable to find work and 44 million struggling just to afford their next meal. While a few benefit from inflated contracts and state tenders, the majority continue to pay the price for corruption and greed.”

The ANC's national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu did not respond to questions but a National Executive Committee (NEC) member described the new billboard as 'cheap politics by the DA'.

“We are on the eve of elections and so the DA has launched their campaign... there is nothing wrong with that…it's just cheap politics on their part to challenge ANC policies in the streets,” the NEC member said.

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, made it clear that the existing BEE policy would not be dismantled.

"Currently, we have a BEE policy that is rooted and underpinned by our Constitution, so if anyone wants an amendment to the BEE Act, they must table their proposals, and they must be taken for discussion in Parliament. At the moment, BEE policies, legislation, and regulation apply, without any dilution whatsoever.”

Adding its voice to the debate, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) rejected the DA's call last week, describing it as "naive".

Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks affirmed the federation’s unwavering support for BEE's “progressive objectives”.

“As long as South Africa remains scarred by the painful legacies of exclusion, then transformation legislation such as B-BBEE and Employment Equity will continue to be critical tools to overcoming our still entrenched levels of poverty and inequality,” Parks added.

The  National Empowerment Fund (NEF) also rejected the DA's bill. The fund argued that “the economic exclusion of black South Africans was neither accidental nor short-lived,” and that “pretending that racial demographics no longer shape opportunity is to deny this economic reality.”

THE MERCURY