Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s announcement of a temporary fuel levy reduction – and his granting temporary exemptions from race-based procurement at Eskom and Transnet – ‘highlight a pathway that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be wise to follow’, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
If the president ‘is truly committed to getting the wheels of jobs growth turning again’, the IRR says in a statement, ‘he will transpose the Finance Minister’s temporary reforms into a more permanent turnaround by vetoing the Employment Equity Amendment Bill (EEB) recently approved by the National Assembly.’
The IRR says that, positive as Minister Godongwana’s actions are, ‘they merely top up the petrol tank on a vehicle that needs major repairs. Profound liberalisation of labour and business is needed to get South Africans back to work.’
Says IRR Head of Campaigns Gabriel Crouse: “Godongwana’s idea is to let South Africans make every rand literally go further, by buying a little bit more petrol. But Ramaphosa sits at the national steering wheel and he has to decide which way the country goes. Will it be a more ‘aggressive’ form of BEE called EEB, that benefits a few already rich cadres of all races to the cost of the many? Or will he turn back to the centre in accordance with 80% of South Africans who say jobs should be appointed on merit, according to independent polling commissioned by the IRR?’
The IRR Petition for the President to veto the EEB, including a link to details on the EEB’s unconstitutionality, is available here https://irr.org.za/campaigns/stop-race-quotas
[Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/refuel-gas-station-gas-pump-petrol-2157211/]