GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General
20 October 2025
The fact that the ANC has grossly manipulated Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policies to favour a small circle of its friends is disgraceful and wasteful, but that does not mean the national imperative to transform ownership of the economy should be abandoned.
There have been some positive BBBEE initiatives, such as the transfer of company shares to employees, but these successes have been overwhelmed by a tide of state ineptitude and corruption.
The implementation of BBBEE must be fixed with strong guard rails to curb corruption. Reducing colour-coded inequality is a task that must continue.
What the DA Anti-BEE Bill seeks to do is to use the ANC’s integrity lapses as a tool to retain ownership of the economy in the hands of apartheid beneficiaries, while being charitable to poor people. It denies the undeniable links between poverty and race, which appears to be part of a broader strategy of apartheid denial.
It is another piece in an unsustainable DA, Solidariteit, Afriforum, FF+ strategy to retain land ownership, access to decent health care, and education in the hands of the privileged few.
The solution to the mismanagement of BBEEE is to manage it better. Neither ANC cronyism nor DA exclusion is a real answer. South Africa is among the most unequal countries on earth. The proven weaknesses of the post-apartheid government cannot be used to open the door to re-advantage minorities.
South Africans must interrupt the race to the bottom, reject the ANC-DA binary that has served the country badly, and Unite for Change.