The Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council chairperson Helen Zille has reiterated the DA’s long-held stance against race-based policies, arguing they are not the best way to address the legacy of apartheid and colonialism.

Zille made the remarks on Tuesday when the DA unveiled a large billboard along the N1 highway, declaring that the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy has only enriched African National Congress (ANC) elites while leaving the country poorer.

The party is pushing for its Public Procurement Amendment Bill to become law, a proposal that would effectively repeal BEE.

But political analyst Solly Rashilo told IOL News that the DA’s new proposal was a “dangerous overreach.”

“The bill is a forceful response to the crisis of poverty and corruption, but its premise – that we must abandon race-based redress entirely – is misguided,” Rashilo said.

“The problem is not the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) framework itself, but the capture and corruption of the policy by political insiders. We cannot forget why BEE was introduced. It was never just box-ticking; it’s a vital constitutional tool to correct deep, structural economic injustices caused by colonialism and apartheid.”

Rashilo said instead of discarding BEE for a race-neutral model, South Africa should implement a reformed and “de-captured” BEE.

“We should target the truly disadvantaged with tighter means testing to ensure benefits flow to the poor and excluded, not repeat beneficiaries,” he said.

He added that the country should prioritise job creation and skills development by increasing the weighting of those elements on the BEE scorecard.

“That would make it impossible for a company to score well without creating sustainable jobs and supporting small, Black-owned businesses at the grassroots level,” Rashilo said

On Tuesday, Zille said the DA wanted empowerment policies based on poverty, not race.

“We can measure poverty, so we don’t need race as a proxy. We can design our policies to help the poor climb the ladder, not re-enrich an already obscenely enriched elite,” she said.

Zille said this is the choice facing South Africa and that the DA hopes more people will choose a path leading to economic prosperity.

“Politics is a long game,” she said. “And you’re lucky if you’ve been around long enough to see your ideas and policies land in the public mind. The DA actually designed our policy, which is summarised on the billboard behind me, in the 1990s, when the ANC first conceptualised BEE and cadre deployment as their official policy.”

Zille said the DA warned at the time that cadre deployment would lead to a corrupt and criminal state.

“Everybody then called us racists,” she said. “They claimed we opposed BEE because we didn’t want Black people to succeed. We said that was nonsense, and time has proved us right. Criminality and corruption have become entrenched – corruption is not disrupting the system; it is the system.”

She added that whistle-blowers such as Thomas and Marie Cloutier, Babita Deokaran, and others were killed for challenging entrenched corruption.

“The edifice of the state – which is the edifice of a party that has become a criminal syndicate – cannot be threatened,” she said.

Zille also said former president Jacob Zuma was correct when he argued that he was “just applying ANC policy.”

“His capture of the state, his abuse of state institutions, and the application of policies that impoverished South Africa are ANC policy,” she said. 

“Like Zuma, many more people must have their day in court.”

Zille criticised the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) progress on state capture cases, calling it “a desperate disappointment to all South Africans.”

“BEE and state capture have resulted in massive impoverishment for the majority of South Africans,” she said.

“The only chance you have of getting a job is if the economy grows. But when corruption drains municipal budgets and basic services like water, electricity, refuse removal and sewerage collapse, no one invests.”

She said this had led to a mass exodus from ANC-run areas to those governed by the DA, where investment and employment have increased.

“In Midvaal, where the DA has governed since the beginning and the ANC has never ruled, unemployment is in single figures – 10 percentage points lower than the rest of the country,” Zille said. 

“That’s because DA governments deliver value for money, systems work, people invest, the economy grows, and jobs are created.”

Zille, who is also the DA’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate for 2026, said South Africa faces a make-or-break moment.

“This is Joburg’s last chance,” she said. “We are unveiling this billboard as the culmination of a policy we formulated in the late 1990s, which has now reached Parliament in the form of a bill we hope to make law.”

She added that attitudes towards the DA’s empowerment policy had shifted.

“Previously, we were called racist for this policy. Today, more and more people recognise it as the right way to beat poverty, increase opportunities and create jobs,” she said.

“We will continue this fight for South Africa because we believe the poor must be empowered and given real job opportunities. South Africa can still become a model plural democracy for the world. But time is running out – this election is make or break for our country.”

Rashilo however called for stronger governance and accountability.

“Apply the DA’s proposal for a corruption and fraud disqualification clause across the entire BEE procurement system,” he said. 

“BEE compliance must go hand in hand with stringent accountability.”

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

IOL Politics

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