The ANC is not willing to completely abandon its B-BBEE policy, the party says.
This comes after the DA on Monday announced a new Bill to replace B-BBEE, grow the economy and create employment for South Africans.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said B-BBEE has changed the lives of black South Africans for the better.
“I stress that there will not be a day in South Africa when BEE is scrapped as legislation. Like any other piece of legislation amendments are acceptable as long as they do no deviate from the substance of that piece of legislation,” she said.
Cosatu backs ANC
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks said the federation will also not support B-BBEE being replaced with another policy.
“We will never agree to it. Transformation laws like B-BBEE and employment equity did not fall from the sky. They are a specific response to three and half centuries of discrimination where 90% plus of society was denied access to resources, career opportunities, earning a living and so forth – hence the necessity,” he said.
Parks said B-BBEE can be scrapped when South Africa has bridged inequality among the different racial groups.
“Often people assume that BEE is about a few wealthy individuals or a few billionaires. It is not. It’s about providing inclusive opportunities for everybody, including women, people with disabilities, black persons etc.
“People often forget that half a million workers benefited from B-BBEE through employee shareholder initiatives. This is about including people in the economy and addressing historical legacies,” he said.
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DA and transformation
Bhengu also accused the DA of trying to take South Africa back into the apartheid era.
“This is a party that is content with the current status quo where the levels of inequality are really high. This is why we need transformation and enabling laws for transformation.
“I saw a tweet by Helen Zille that said Afrikaners pulled themselves up by their boot straps and and built themselves up and she does not understand why others can’t follow that. That is indicative of the dismissiveness that the party and other right-wing groups in South Africa have for the need to equalise society,” she said.
ANC denial
Bhengu denied that B-BBEE has benefited a few politically connected people.
“A lot of women have secured employment as a result of affirmative action policies. There are increased black faces and Indians and coloureds in the public sector because that is where affirmative action has worked the most.
“I am not certain that public servants are members of the ANC,” she said.
What is the DA’s argument?
DA head of policy Mathew Cuthbert told the media on Monday that since the ANC’s B-BBEE policy was 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%.
“According to the March 2025 Household Affordability Index, approximately 64% of black South Africans are living below the upper-bound poverty line of R1 634 per person per month. This means that nearly 30 million black South Africans are trapped in poverty out of a total population of 52 million,” he said.
Cuthbert said Instead of redressing the injustices of the past, this policy has created a feeding trough for the ANC’s cadres who have benefited at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.
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