Charles Molele
The DA’s interim leader John Steenhuisen has written a petition to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), requesting the financial policy-setting body to oppose the use of black economic empowerment (BEE) policies as a requirement to receive COVID-19 relief funds.
Steenhuisen, a virulent critic of the ANC government’s BEE policy, said because most COVID-19 relief funds came from the IMF loan, the policy-setting body should instruct the government to stop using the money to promote BEE.
This comes after trade union Solidarity and lobby group AfriForum headed for the Constitutional Court to ask it to urgently hear their appeal against the Pretoria High Court, which recently upheld Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane’s position that firms should comply with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEEE) rules to benefit from the R20 million Tourism Relief Fund.
“I have today sent a written petition to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Kristalina Georgieva, opposing in the strongest terms the use by the South African government of Corona disaster relief funds in a racially discriminatory way,” said Steenhuisen.
“As the majority of these relief funds come from a loan obtained from the IMF, I implore this international body to censure the South African government and instruct it to stop using IMF monies in a way that discriminates along racial lines, and exacerbates racial tension in South Africa.”
Steenhuisen said the ANC government’s choice to use this funding to only support BBEEE compliant companies, at a time of national economic crisis, was ‘unconscionable’.
“The virus does not discriminate on the basis of race, and it is indefensible that government should do so when deciding who is deserving of their help and who is not,” he said.
“The race of a business owner has no bearing on the race of the employees of the business. White-owned businesses have black employees, who in turn support families. By deliberately denying these businesses critical government relief, it is not just the owner of the business, but indeed these families who will suffer should the business fail.”
He said he hoped the IMF would not hesitate to direct the South African government to not use its loan financing in a way that furthers racial discrimination.
“I have no doubt that the IMF had no intention of fuelling racial discord in South Africa. I trust that the IMF will not hesitate in directing the South African government to not use its loan financing in a way that furthers racial discrimination,” said Steenhuisen.
On Tuesday opposition parties weighed in over government’s decision to limit COVID-19 relief for small businesses to those that meet black empowerment criteria.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni told Parliament’s finance committees this week that he could not support a policy that discriminated against white businesses.
“I think that we need to support all enterprises black and white, as long as they are able to remain viable to support our people, to create jobs and let’s continue to build this non-racial South Africa of ours,” Mboweni said.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
