The DA’s plan to end BEE is a welcome sign of principle in a political environment ruled by cowardice and compromise (“DA targets end to BBBEE and race-based tenders in bold policy move”, October 20). But principles mean nothing without the courage to act on them. The DA must recognise that BEE is not just a flawed policy; it is the root of SA’s economic decay, corruption and division.
BEE has never empowered the poor. It has empowered the connected. It has replaced opportunity with patronage, and equality with entitlement. It poisons every tender, every contract and every boardroom. As long as this racialist system stands, SA will remain shackled to the same cycle of failure that has defined the ANC’s governance.
If the DA truly believes in a nonracial, merit-based SA, it cannot simply oppose BEE in speeches and committee rooms. It must make its repeal a condition for continued participation in the government of national unity. Anything less would make the DA complicit in maintaining the very system it claims to oppose.
Power without purpose is meaningless. If the DA will not use its position in the government to dismantle the racial policies destroying this country, it must ask itself what it is doing in the GNU at all. SA does not need more cautious negotiation. It needs conviction, courage and a clear stand against racial engineering in all its forms.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
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