By Terence Grant
In June I argued, in a letter published by several newspapers, that BEE focuses entirely on the colour of one’s skin and forces poor blacks to pay through the nose for electricity that could be supplied much cheaper if Eskom were allowed to purchase coal from companies that are not BEE compliant.
I suggested asking our courts to suspend BEE until the government came up with a policy that was “less vague and incoherent’’.
Consequently, I am exceedingly pleased to hear the Supreme Court of Appeal recently set aside a key BEE condition introduced in 2017 by then-finance minister Pravin Gordhan. His current finance minister, Tito Mboweni, has been given 12 months to promulgate the new legislation.
In doing so, the court stated that state-owned companies could not disqualify prospective contractors who are not 51% black owned, without first considering the price and proposition of the tender.
It amplified the ruling by stating that state-owned enterprises have to comply with section 217(1) of the Constitution which “enjoins organs of the state to contract goods or services in accordance with a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective’’.
This is a victory for our democracy and has prompted the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet to call on the government to appeal against the ruling, which it describes as “tantamount to the reversal of the transformation process”.
One could perhaps be forgiven for wondering why it was left to Afribusiness (a NPO now known as Sakeliga) to challenge the legislation in court.
Was the DA, which routinely holds itself as the solution to all our problems, not aware that Minister Gordhan had overstepped the mark, or did it perhaps have better things to do?
Perhaps a vote for one of the smaller parties makes more sense than some would like us to believe.
The Star