DA: It's time for SA's empowerment policies to move away from race to poverty alleviation for all

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it's time for the country’s empowerment policies to move away from race and towards poverty alleviation for all.

On Tuesday, the party unveiled it’s new billboard along the N1 highway in Johannesburg, which criticises the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.

It's part of the DA's push to garner support for its Public Procurement Amendment Bill, which seeks to repeal triple BEE.

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For drivers travelling along the N1 highway northbound, near Bromhof, they would have seen the DA's newly unveiled billboard, which says: "BEE made ANC elites rich and left SA poor".

Signed into law in 2003, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act is a policy aimed at addressing the country’s racial economic inequalities caused by apartheid and colonialism. 

This is through government giving preferential procurement contracts to companies that contribute to empowering historically disadvantaged groups - African, coloured and Indian. 

However, three decades after the policy’s introduction, the racial inequalities still remain, with a slight increase in the black middle class. 

The DA's federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, said that the policy was always designed to benefit only a few.

"Sphamandla [Goge, eNCA reporter] said everything in SA boils down to race. I would say everything in SA boils down to poverty and unemployment. That is the most critical challenge and disgrace in South Africa today, and we are saying the ANC’s policies have led us there. As the biggest alternative party, we have to put the alternative on the table that will not lead to a trickle down but will open up doors to investment, economic growth and job creation."

The DA said it would be writing to parties within and outside the GNU to canvass support for its bill.