The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has written to Deputy President Paul Mashatile challenging him to provide concrete evidence for his claim that B-BBEE has proved to be a “great success” and a non-negotiable part of South Africa’s economic progress.
The IRR notes that, six months after it had first requested such proof following similar remarks in Parliament, “none has been provided”.
This week, Mashatile said in Parliament that abandoning B-BBEE was “not an option” and that the policy was “a necessary tool for transformation, essential for achieving economic equality”.
In the letter, IRR head of strategic communications Hermann Pretorius accuses the Deputy President of “dodging honest debate and relying on assertion instead of evidence, despite worsening unemployment, weak growth, and persistent inequality during the BEE era”.
Says Pretorius: “The challenge to the Deputy President is rather simple: show the evidence that BEE has reduced unemployment, improved incomes, and boosted growth, or stop claiming that it has. Some in power might believe that South Africans are fools who can be lied to about the socioeconomic circumstances they face each and every day. But Deputy President Mashatile should know that this is hardly the case.”
“The blatant failures of race-based policies like B-BBEE are painfully visible – from service delivery failures to the evidence placed before Parliament and the Madlanga Commission regarding the shameless criminal cronyism that has come to define so many of the government’s shortcomings.”
In its latest letter, the IRR once again rejects Mashatile’s framing that scrapping race-based policy would mean abandoning transformation, calling it a “false choice” that ignores credible non-racial alternatives.
The IRR has again put concrete proposals to the Deputy President, including:
- The No More Race Laws Bill, ending race-based laws and targeting disadvantage directly;
- The Value For Money Bill, fixing procurement to prioritise value for money; and
- The Freedom From Poverty Bill, empowering the poor through direct support, not intermediaries.
The IRR says the Deputy President now owes South Africans a clear answer: where is the evidence that B-BBEE is working?
Adds Pretorius: “South Africans can show their support for a change by signing the petitions on these IRR draft laws. Tens of thousands of people have already shown their support, and the numbers are growing steadily. This is proof if proof were needed that the pressure to change the policy course away from race-based failure is building and making those in power, like the Deputy President, increasingly nervous about their failures.”
The IRR urges readers to read and endorse the bills mentioned above.
In a second statement yesterday, the IRR said it had begun engagements with provinces about their Appropriation Bills, “recommending that they remove BEE premiums which impinge on provincial budgets, limit service delivery and defer development by wasting taxpayers’ money on premiums rather than actual goods and services”.
It points out that the Provincial Financial Management Act obligates the MECs of all provinces to table their annual budgets within two weeks of the delivery of the national budget.
“The IRR seized the opportunity to submit recommendations to all MECs ahead of their provincial budget speech, urging that they make Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) premiums an explicit expenditure item in their accounting, which they currently do not”.
The IRR further pushed for MECs “to eliminate BEE premiums altogether as they fail to serve the goals set by provinces to advance development and provide basic services”.
Instead, money spent on these premiums “only fills the pockets of tenderpreneurs without an exchange of value flowing to residents”.
“The next step in this process is for the provincial legislatures to invite the public to make written and verbal submissions on their Appropriation Bills to foster the spirit of public participation, democracy and accountability by allowing the public to say what they think of the Bills. So far only the Western Cape, Gauteng and North West have communicated their submission dates, to which the Institute responded with written submissions and, in the case of the Western Cape, a verbal submission. The Institute awaits the opportunity to communicate verbally with the legislatures of the latter two provinces.”
The IRR’s submission can be summarised in these points:
- Adopt and apply procurement policies that maximise value for money within the current legal framework;
- Measure, record, and publish the cost of any preference-related premium paid in procurement decisions;
- Protect education, health, and other frontline services from avoidable procurement inflation, and
- Use the province’s voice in the NCOP to advocate for a national procurement framework that places value for money first and sharply limits premiums that reduce service delivery
Says IRR strategic engagements manager Makone Maja: “The provincial legislatures have a duty to be transparent with residents about the extent to which preference premiums rob communities of the basic services many of them depend on. As we contend in the submission, premiums have a real human cost. Money that could be going to equip the classroom, the clinic, the ambulance fleet, road maintenance, and basic service delivery is instead used to promote BEE. Value for money is a better choice for residents and is the only option for provinces that are interested in adequately meeting the needs of their people.”