BEE is here to stay in South Africa

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said there will not be a situation where black economic empowerment (BEE) is abolished in South Africa.

Bhengu’s comment followed the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s launch of the “Economic Inclusion for All Bill” on Monday, 20 August 2025.

The DA launched this Bill to replace South Africa’s current BEE laws with an inclusive procurement regime.

“This will replace years of ineffective ANC empowerment policies that have left the majority of South Africans unemployed, impoverished, and hopeless,” the party said.

The DA’s head of policy, Mat Cuthbert, said around 44 million South Africans are stuck in poverty, and 12 million are stranded in unemployment queues.

“This is not the inclusive country we envisioned building when we lined up to vote on 27 April 1994,” he said.

“Since the ANC’s BEE policy was first introduced in 2003, conditions have significantly worsened for the people it claims to represent.”

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

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

He added that the BEE model has become a key driver of corruption within our society, with widespread looting.

The DA’s Economic Inclusion for All Bill seeks to amend the Public Procurement Amendment Act of 2024.

It will repeal all race-based preferential procurement provisions and replace them with a real empowerment system that targets poverty.

This Bill aims to create a public procurement system that encourages genuine economic empowerment.

It will offer incentives for tangible developmental outcomes such as job creation, poverty reduction, and skills enhancement.

The ANC says BEE is here to stay

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu dismissed the DA’s proposal, saying transformation laws are here to stay in South Africa.

“The idea of a future South Africa without transformation laws, starting with triple-BEE, is one that must be challenged by all democracy-loving people and patriots,” she said.

Bhengu added that there are many black people who have been beneficiaries of BEE and transformation policies.

“We have seen a lot of excellence, with people rising in the corporate sector and the public sector,” she said.

She added that many women have climbed the corporate ladder and have risen to executive level at Eskom and elsewhere.

“Many of those people are proud beneficiaries of black economic empowerment,” Bhengu said in an SABC interview.

She said there will not be a situation where the race-based policies are replaced in South Africa with other empowerment laws.

“There will not be a day in South Africa where black economic empowerment is scrapped as legislation,” Bhengu said.

She added that there can be amendments. However, these amendments should not deviate from the substance of the legislation.