By Thebe Mabanga
Songezo Zibi, leader of Rise Mzansi and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), has rejected the Democratic Alliance’s call to scrap Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) and replace it with an Economic Inclusion for All Bill.
Zibi spoke to Inside Politics following a retreat of leaders from the ten parties that make up the Government of National Unity (GNU).
The DA’s proposal was not discussed at the meeting.
“We need to talk about BEE broadly and not just in the narrow sense of BEE certificates,” Zibi said, reiterating Rise Mzansi’s stance and rejecting the DA’s call.
“I disagree with it,” he added.
The DA has called for BEE to be scrapped, including all references in legislation, and for the closure of the B-BBEE Commission within the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).
In its place, the party proposed a bill that uses procurement as a lever of empowerment, with opportunities allocated according to “need, not race” and “merit, not political connection.”
The DA unveiled the policy early last month, followed by a protest, a billboard campaign, and a full election campaign ahead of next year’s local government elections.
The billboard claims that BEE has enriched a few ANC-linked elites and urges voters to choose change.
Zibi likened the DA’s call to attacks by the US conservative right on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hiring practices.
“We must talk about BEE in a broader sense,” he said, noting the need for empowerment that starts with education, continues through skills development, and extends to jobs and entrepreneurship.
He warned that if the debate is kept “narrow” and focused only on BEE deals, the DA will win by telling the poor and unemployed that only a few are benefiting.
Over two press briefings, the DA characterized BEE as a social development issue rather than an economic one, pointing to widespread hunger and malnutrition despite stretched social grants—but did not directly link BEE to these problems.
Zibi also rejected the DA’s conflation of BEE with corruption, arguing that tackling corruption requires legislative tools rather than blaming BEE.
Helen Zille, the DA’s Federal Chairperson and mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, linked BEE to state capture, while the party also associated it with the high unemployment affecting 12.6 million people and the 44 million living in poverty.
Zibi called for the debate to be framed correctly.
“South Africans cannot handle political disagreement,” he noted, arguing that the DA’s stance ignores other areas of empowerment, including ownership, management and control, and skills development.
The DTIC also rejected the DA’s call, describing it as “progress disguised as reform,” while the Black Business Council called it a “return to apartheid.”
INSIDE POLITICS