The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on Thursday joined the DA’s call to scrap black economic empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action (AA) legislation, saying it made no contribution to economic growth. 

In a heated debate at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), discussing the relevance, successes and failures of the legislation, FF+ MP Fanie du Toit said the legislation had given rise to corruption and brought about the culture of self-enrichment. This in turn posed a “real threat” to the country’s future, he said.

“Just a small group of politically connected individuals benefited from it and amassed great wealth in the process, while the greater part of the population has fallen into poverty.

“It has brought about a culture of self-enrichment and corruption with appointments in the government sphere, which merely accelerated the public service's general decline,” said Du Toit.

Opposition parties including the IFP and EFF were in agreement that it had so far failed, except they called for amendments and drastic changes to be made.

IFP MP Bhekizizwe Radebe said though the party had been in favour of black upliftment, the policy had proven to be a get-rich-quick scheme.   

“What is being observed is that only a few have managed to capture and exploit the system by turning it into a get-rich-quick scheme. We need to start seeing greater attention paid to targets at local and rural levels.” 

Radebe said the legislation needed to be more comprehensive and ought to create a foundation upon which black-owned businesses were permanently featured in the economy. The policy was also not widely publicised and translated to people at grassroots level, according to Radebe.  

EFF MP Thembinkosi Apleni echoed the sentiments that the policy had “dismally failed” to rectify the social and economic inequalities that persist.  

 “Twenty-eight years later, we stand here faced with a stark reality that the economic and social marginalisation and impoverishment of the black majority has persisted and reproduced,” Apleni said.  

Like the IFP, Apleni said the policy had reached only a small number of well-connected politicians and businessmen. 

“There has been no measurable, visible change of any economic ownership in SA, and blacks remain poor and unemployed.”

The EFF called for the amendment of the constitution and laws which would guarantee that black people and women benefited from the policy. 

ANC MPs came to the defence of the policy and legislation while some slammed and shamed the FF+ for tabling a debate which they said opened “old apartheid wounds”.

ANC MP Fikile Majola said the call to scrap the BBBEE legislation was not helpful towards redressing the damage of apartheid as many South Africans continued to bear the brunt of unemployment, low wages, lack of quality education, access to markets and lack of finance to start a business.   

“It is also unhelpful if our objective as a nation is to grow our economy faster, lift people out of poverty and give our people a better life for all.  

“Though we still have a long way to go as government and social partners there are some achievements that we can highlight.”

In citing some of the achievements, Majola said  from 200,3 when the BBBEE Act was first promulgated, to 2013, R600bn worth of transactions had been announced, and representation of black people and women in senior management positions in the private sector had increased from less than 10% in the 1990s to more than 40%.