DA’s bill challenges race-based BEE legislation

The DA is doubling down on its crusade to scrap broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) laws, writing to President Cyril Ramaphosa and parliamentary parties to support its ‘economic inclusion for all bill’.

DA MP and head of policy Mathew Cuthbert took further steps this week to ensure his proposed legislation is prioritised in the coming parliamentary year.

Cuthbert last month tabled the Public Procurement Amendment Bill, a private member’s bill that seeks to effectively scrap all B-BBEE laws, arguing that the law has only served to enrich “a tiny politically connected elite”.

Private member bills, usually sponsored by opposition MPs, rarely receive the necessary fifty-plus one majority support to get over the line, with the ANC in the past using its parliamentary dominance to thwart them. However, this strategy no longer guarantees success since the formation of the government of national unity.

This led to Cuthbert writing to all 18 parties in the national assembly on Friday, asking them to help pass his bill.

“This bill specifically addresses our enduring and painful challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Your support is not a matter of party politics but a question of finding the most effective way of graduating from a system that has failed to transform the economy for the majority,” said Cuthbert in his letter.

Cuthbert’s bill seeks to amend the Public Procurement Amendment Act of 2024 to repeal all race-based preferential procurement provisions. Instead of these, the DA proposes an empowerment system that prioritises poverty as a proxy for disadvantage, as opposed to race.

It also proposes that companies should prioritise other economic empowerment measures, such as equity equivalent investment programmes instead of giving shares to individuals.

“The new bill proposes a system whereby empowerment is measured by economic inclusion rather than extreme wealth for a few. By using poverty and opportunity as the key determinants for disadvantage, the bill ensures that the support goes to those who need it most. In so doing, it established a more equitable framework for full economic participation,” Cuthbert wrote.

Ramaphosa’s office had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Organisations such as Cosatu and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission have rejected the DA’s proposal, arguing that it undermines the country’s economic transformation agenda.