By BAKANG MOKOTO
20 October 2025- The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it has launched a Bill to replace BEE, with an inclusive procurement regime, in the “Economic Inclusion for All Bill”. The DA calls on the ANC to support this and put people before cadres.
The DA Head of Policy and Member of Parliament (MP), Mat Cuthbert said 44 million South Africans are still stuck in poverty and that proves that BEE has failed dismally. Cuthbert said since launching The Democratic Alliance’s Plan to Turbocharge the Economy two months ago, in which they highlighted the key roadblocks to growth and job creation, they now present the Economic Inclusion for All Bill.
“This bill aims to replace years of ineffective ANC empowerment policies that have left the majority of South Africans unemployed, impoverished, and hopeless. 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 27 April 1994. Since the ANC’s BEE policy was first introduced in 2003, conditions have significantly worsened for the people it claims to represent,” he said.
Cuthbert further said the unemployment rate for black South Africans was 36% in the last quarter of 2024, compared to 7% among white South Africans. He added that from 2014 to 2024, the black unemployment rate increased by 9% 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 R1634 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.
“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,” said Cuthbert.
According to Prof William Gumede of the Wits School of Governance, “Conservatively, R1 trillion has been moved between under 100 people since 1994. The same people have been empowered and re-empowered over and over.”
He also stated that: “South Africa’s BEE model has created a model of corruption because people set up companies just to get a contract.”
Cuthbert said perhaps the most notorious example is the disastrous R54 billion locomotive procurement scandal investigated by the Zondo Commission into State Capture, which revealed how political connections enabled widespread corruption. He said in this case, Transnet unlawfully inflated the price of a 2014 contract to procure 1,064 locomotives from R39 billion to R54 billion to favour Chinese suppliers and channelled over R6 billion in kickbacks to Gupta-linked companies under the pretence of transformation.
“The BEE model has become a key driver of corruption within our society. We have witnessed this in the wide scale looting of approximately R2 billion from Tembisa Hospital, and the murder of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s Chief Auditor, Mpho Mafole after submitting a scathing report relating to 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,” said Cuthbert.
He said the DA is committed to redressing the injustices of the past by removing all barriers to accessing opportunities and delivering real empowerment for all South Africans. Cuthbert said their 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 a real empowerment system that targets poverty as the proxy for disadvantage instead of race.
“This Bill aims to create a public procurement system that encourages genuine economic empowerment by offering incentives for tangible 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,” he said.
Cuthbert said their alternative model aligns with the 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which serve as a universal call to action for government, business, and civil society to end poverty, address inequality and create a path towards sustainable economic growth by 2030. He said the Bill removes 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.
“Furthermore, the transitional measures in the Bill include 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 empowers 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.
“The DA’s alternative scorecard comprises three components. Firstly, Value for Money, secondly, Economic Inclusion, and thirdly, Disqualification Criteria. The Value for Money component assesses the cost-effectiveness, technical capacity, and reliability of bidders, which accounts for 80%,” said Cuthbert.
He said the Economic Inclusion component assesses bidders’ demonstrable contributions to the SDGs across five different categories, such as Human Development, Economic Empowerment, Environmental Sustainability, Inclusive Communities and Governance, and a Mixed Impact Option, which accounts for 20%. He said the DA also proposes a Disqualification Criteria to exclude bidders if there is a proven record of fraud, corruption, or misrepresentation.
The Guardian 