LETTER: BEE has patently failed, so let’s try another route
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I always enjoy reading Carol Paton’s articles and columns and don’t often disagree with her take on things, but I must take issue with her most recent article (DA now a party for some, not all, as new race policy entrenches denialism (, September 8).
As a retired MD of a medium-sized company, I am well acquainted with the machinations of the ANC’s broad-based BEE policy, which, to my mind has been an utter failure that has enriched the politically connected, privileged few while the plight of the vast majority of the poor has been completely ignored.
To suggest that the DA has built itself a comfortable and tasteful new house shaped by 300 years of colonial rule is ridiculous. While the party is trying to eliminate racial profiling — “[rejecting] race as a social category” — it acknowledges the redress that is necessary due to the injustices of the previous regime. The party just believes there are better ways of addressing this issue.
I agree that, if asked, most of the poor and unemployed will tell you BEE has not assisted them at all. We need to stop policies based on skin colour that perpetuate the polarisation between the different ethnic groups in our country and start looking at each other as fellow South Africans.
Johann Kruger
Noordhoek
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As a retired MD of a medium-sized company, I am well acquainted with the machinations of the ANC’s broad-based BEE policy, which, to my mind has been an utter failure that has enriched the politically connected, privileged few while the plight of the vast majority of the poor has been completely ignored.
To suggest that the DA has built itself a comfortable and tasteful new house shaped by 300 years of colonial rule is ridiculous. While the party is trying to eliminate racial profiling — “[rejecting] race as a social category” — it acknowledges the redress that is necessary due to the injustices of the previous regime. The party just believes there are better ways of addressing this issue.
I agree that, if asked, most of the poor and unemployed will tell you BEE has not assisted them at all. We need to stop policies based on skin colour that perpetuate the polarisation between the different ethnic groups in our country and start looking at each other as fellow South Africans.
Johann Kruger
Noordhoek
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za (mailto:letters@businesslive.co.za). Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime phone number.