The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday launched its Economic Inclusion for All Bill to replace Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and is urging support from the African National Congress (ANC).

The party expressed concerns about what it said was the ANC’s continued defence of BEE, which it argued had deterred investment, stifled growth and benefited ANC cadres while the majority of black South Africans remained in poverty and excluded from opportunity.

With its proposed Bill, the DA aimed to replace what it termed “years of ineffective ANC empowerment policies”.

“Around 44-million South Africans are stuck in poverty, 12-million are stranded in unemployment queues, and our country remains the most unequal place on earth. This is not the inclusive country we envisioned building when we lined up to vote on the 27th of April 1994,” stated DA head of policy Mat Cuthbert.

He believes that since the ANC’s BEE policy was first introduced in 2003, conditions have significantly worsened for the people it claims to represent.

He said the unemployment rate for black South Africans was 36% in the last quarter of 2024, compared with 7% among white South Africans.

From 2014 to 2024, the black unemployment rate increased by 9%, while the white unemployment rate decreased by 1%.

The DA vowed to use its position in the Government of National Unity (GNU) and Parliament to oppose what it said was a “harmful” policy.

“The DA may be in coalition with the ANC in government, but that doesn’t mean we need to agree with them all the time. We are in the GNU to represent the interests of all South Africans, and we will not relent,” Cuthbert said.

The DA believes that instead of redressing past injustices, BEE has created a “feeding trough for the ANC’s cadres”.

Cuthbert claimed that the BEE model had become a key driver of corruption, citing the looting of about R2-billion from Tembisa Hospital and the murder of Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality’s Chief Auditor Mpho Mafole after he submitted a report that pointed to irregularities in a R1.8-billion chemical toilets tender.

“This clearly demonstrates how successive ANC administrations have failed to address the root causes of inequality by implementing crude race-based procurement policies to benefit themselves at the expense of the people,” Cuthbert said.

He assured that the DA was committed to redressing the injustices of the past by removing all barriers to accessing opportunities and delivering “real empowerment” for all South Africans.

The party’s Economic Inclusion for All Bill seeks to amend the Public Procurement Amendment Act of 2024, to repeal all race-based preferential procurement provisions and replace them with an empowerment system that targets poverty as the proxy for disadvantage instead of race.

The Bill aims to create a public procurement system that encourages economic empowerment by offering incentives for developmental outcomes such as job creation, poverty reduction, skills enhancement and environmentally sustainable practices.

“We aim to reform South Africa’s public procurement framework by aligning it with Section 217 of the Constitution, which governs public procurement, requiring that all State organs must contract for goods and services in a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective,” explained Cuthbert.

He further highlighted that the DA’s Bill removed provisions for set-asides, prequalification criteria, subcontracting conditions and local content designations, replacing these measures with an outcomes-driven system centred on inclusive development and value-for-money procurement.

He said the transitional measures in the Bill included the winding down of the BEE Commission over 12 months and the systematic removal of references to BEE across legislation.

To give effect to this change, the Bill empowered the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition to develop a simplified preference points system based on a supplier’s demonstrated contributions to inclusive development and social impact, Cuthbert explained.

The DA also proposes a disqualification criterion to exclude bidders if there is a proven record of fraud, corruption or misrepresentation.

Cuthbert said instead of granting nominal ownership of foreign and local businesses to ANC cadres, the DA’s alternative aimed to empower all South Africans who lacked access to economic opportunities by focusing on human development activities such as feeding schemes, scholarships and early childhood development.

The party will focus on economic empowerment activities, including local hiring, small business development and women’s empowerment initiatives, as well as environmental sustainability projects such as renewable energy, recycling and reforestation investments.

Inclusive community and governance initiatives such as legal aid centres, urban greening and NGO partnerships would also be foci, explained Cuthbert.