Sparks are expected to fly at the DA’s federal council this weekend when the party’s stance on broad-based BEE comes up for discussion in its draft manifesto.
The battle over BBBEE is mainly between two factions within the party, with the so-called liberal grouping arguing that race should not be a factor in redress, as disadvantage can be measured, while the opposing faction — and the party’s federal executive — emphasises that race is a proxy for disadvantage.
The federal council would have to discuss and initiate steps to adopt its manifesto a mere two weeks ahead of its launch later in February. Its former policy chief, Gwen Ngwenya, recently resigned, saying in her resignation letter that the DA does not take policy seriously. Business Day has also reported that her resignation followed differences with the leadership over BBBEE.
In the 87-page draft manifesto, which was sent out to members of the federal council on Monday and which Business Day has seen, the party deals with its empowerment policy, which has been a point of contention within the party over the past year.
The draft proposal is that the DA would see the current BBBEE scorecard “vastly simplified’ with the inclusion of time frames for initiatives, which would help business plan for the medium and long term. It states that a new simplified scorecard would channel the efforts of the private sector into investment in a bottom-up approach by focusing broadly on awarding weight to employee share ownership schemes so that employees as a group become substantial stakeholders in the business.
It would also recognise spending on growing education, skills and expertise of the workforce, as well as reward companies for growing their workforce, which would mitigate the incentives to mechanise. The final category would be to reward companies for their development of new black entrepreneurs, whether this is achieved through direct mentoring of subcontractors or suppliers, or through donations to organisations whose core competency it is to identify, incubate, finance and nurture black entrepreneurship.
These proposals will have to be adopted by the federal council before they make it into the final manifesto ahead of the 2019 national elections.
The party was sent into a tailspin last year when Ngwenya announced that the party had decided to scrap BBBEE from its policy. This was later disputed by federal executive chair James Selfe.
The draft manifesto, under the headline of “A New Plan to Realise Economic Justice for All South Africans” proposes that the DA take two approaches: empowerment approaches to provide meaningful redress, which eventually realises socioeconomic justice, as well as social protection measures, which provide a safety net for all disadvantaged South Africans regardless of their or their family’s exposure to past injustice.
The draft makes it clear that that many South Africans have been left at the fringes of the economy and society, and that millions are still trapped in the legacy of the racially exclusionary policy of apartheid. It makes it clear that the reason the DA supports a programme of race-based redress is, “simply put, because it is an important part of our country’s reconciliation project and vital for justice”.
A senior DA member aligned to the grouping that does not see race as a proxy for disadvantage told Business Day the draft manifesto would not be accepted without a challenge.
Party spokesperson Solly Malatsi said the federal council would meet from Friday to Monday, with Friday being dedicated to the discussion of the draft manifesto. He said once the federal council has considered the input, it would initiate steps to ultimately adopt it.
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