MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

On Race Based COVID-19 Funding

By

Enforcing BEE compliance to access relief funding is a dangerous precedent

BEE Facts:

  • All South Africans agree that we need a mechanism to redress the past
  • NOT all South Africans agree on the BEE programme
  • It is the only one that we have so we have to live with it
  • BEE was set up to ‘balance the economy’ using race as a measurement

COVID-19 Facts:

  • Non Discriminatory
  • Non Racial
  • Non Xenophobic
  • COVID-19 is a virus that doesn’t pay tax or employ people

Why for the love of any being that you imagine sitting in the sky does our government insist on further politicising and making tax paying employees and employers suffer by not extending relief to businesses that are not BEE compliant?

Enforcing BEE compliance to access relief funding is a dangerous precedent that could encourage the sitting government to try and enforce even more divisive legislation. Could the madness even extend to legislation forcing non compliant businesses to move to a Non Compliant area? just like the Group Areas Act?

On 19 May 2020 during the joint meeting of the standing committee and select committees of finance, a heated exchange took place on the matter of race-based criteria on Covid-19 relief funding.

To the surprise of many in last week’s meeting, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni admitted that he could not support a policy position that discriminated against business owners based on their race. When it came to documenting this in the committee’s report, there was heated debate.

In reponse, the Co-Chairperson, Yunus Carrim said that it annoyed the ANC when Mboweni spoke his mind. This drove further disagreement as the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Appropriations Dikaledi Mahlangu distanced herself from Carrim’s comment in the chat section of the virtual meeting.

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the meeting stressed the importance that the committee should clearly state in its report that racial criteria would not be used for relief funding, several of the ANC members doggedly refused to accept the changes that were proposed.

Taking into account the comments by Mboweni and Carrim, it is so evidently clear that not even the ANC is united on this matter and some in the party ranks can see it for what it is – an unconstitutional policy.

The DA rejects the racialisation of relief funds in the face of the economically disastrous Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown. While the ANC struggles with its internal battles to determine policy and direction, the priority of government must be to save as many jobs as it can.

It is for this reason that the DA has approached the Courts to seek urgent relief to prevent the unlawful use of B-BBEE status, race, gender, age or disability as criteria in relation to economic or other forms of relief or assistance.

Although Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) may be a policy of Government, the response to Covid-19 must be inclusive to ensure that jobs can be saved regardless of the race of the employer.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.