The Democratic Alliance (DA) has an opportunity to save South Africa from continued poverty, corruption, and ruin. It must not squander it with weak compromises and petty politicking. If the DA is to form a government with the ANC through a coalition, a confidence-and-supply agreement, or any other creative form, it must not compromise on one fundamental issue.
The DA must demand that South Africa ends all its race-based legislation; notably, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), all forms of race-based employment and admission criteria and quotas, and affirmative action.
Apartheid was fundamentally a system of race-based legislation to secure jobs for white people. The ANC did not learn a positive message from the system from which they claimed to have liberated South Africa. Rather, the ANC has wholeheartedly embraced race quotas that would have pleased Hendrik Verwoerd himself.
Resentment
Race-based legislation breeds resentment, and a culture of unfairness. Many deserving individuals have been denied placement as doctors or in business due to the colour of their skin; this is while many genuinely skilled black professionals are ridiculed and seen as inferior, as nobody can be sure that they were elevated on merit or because of their race.
It is a morally heinous system that only serves to further divide South Africans, while eroding our sense of worth and justice.
Furthermore, race-based legislation has devastated our government and economy. BEE procurement for state-owned enterprises has enabled corruption, tenderpreneurs, and the placement of corrupt cadres who run their departments into the ground.
Private sector businesses are forced to give large portions of their business away to undeserving individuals to avoid hefty fines. Businesses that rely on working with the state must accept that the business may be slowly taken over by government-appointed BEE partners if it is to continue functioning.
Remaining small
This has led to businesses intentionally remaining small, so they can avoid the headache of race quotas for their employees and handing over their business to deployed cadres. This has stifled economic growth and contributed to continued unemployment.
BEE has not led to redress or equality. Only a few already rich and elite black individuals have benefited from BEE, while most people in the country remain poor. In fact, the continued stifling of the economy keeps many black people in poverty, as the economy contracts and does not create jobs or opportunities to produce wealth.
The Zondo Commission identified race-based policies as a problem, citing that BEE was being manipulated and used to “advance the interests of a few individuals”.
Harvard’s Growth Lab, additionally, has called for the end of BEE to ignite economic growth, as has the Institute of Race Relations.
It is clear that BEE and race-based legislation need to end. They do not, in any way, aid the previously disadvantaged or the currently disadvantaged. They do not provide redress or help those who truly need it. Rather, all they do is drive a wedge between South Africans, while ensuring that the government continues to collapse, along with the economy.
The DA must not squander its opportunity as a potential kingmaker. It must demand an end to these neo-Apartheid policies, and usher in a unified and prosperous South Africa that does not care about the colour of people’s skin, but only the content of their character.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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