DA to tweak grants if it wins

The DA yesterday assured its black supporters that it will not abandon race-based policies.

During the launch of its elections manifesto in Polokwane yesterday, DA leader Helen Zille told a 10000-strong crowd of mainly black supporters that it supported broad-based Black Economic Empowerment because the apartheid government denied millions of blacks access to economic opportunities and the legacy persists.

Zille said it would not do away with social grants that many depend on for survival.

But she cautioned that BEE must open opportunities for everyone who suffered past discrimination and not just a select few with political connections.

"BEE needs to work for job creation, not against it. BEE under the DA government will incentivise companies to create new jobs, implement training schemes and give workers a stake in the companies."

In previous months the DA leaders were at pains to deny reports that it was divided over the issue of transformation and BEE.

The manifesto puts that into perspective and boasts about strides made in the Western Cape.

It says 65% of the Western Cape government's senior management were previously disadvantaged and 80% of the R2-billion spent on tenders went to black businesses in the last financial year.

The DA promised not to take away social grants, but it will introduce a system that would eliminate dependency on the state.

It proposes a social grant system with built-in incentives. This entails ensuring young people pass matric and study further to enable them to get jobs instead of depending on grants.

On land, Zille said her party would invest R10-billion to accelerate the land reform process.

She blasted the ANC and its president, Jacob Zuma, saying it was no longer Nelson Mandela's party.

"Things changed right here in Polokwane in December 2007. At its elective conference that year the ANC elected a new leadership. president [Thabo] Mbeki was recalled from office. Charges against Zuma for 783 counts of corruption were dropped," she said.

"That was the moment when a great political movement lost its sense of direction. It was hijacked by leaders who care more about themselves than the people they are meant to serve."