The call to exclude coloured and Indian South Africans from BEE in tenders worth more than R50-million is “ill-timed‚ poorly conceived and flies in the face of the constitutional provision for redress”‚ says ANC MP Mandla Mandela.
The grandson of late former president Nelson Mandela and Chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council has released a statement claiming that the proposed changes to BEE policy also contradict “the ANC’s Mangaung Resolution for radical economic transformation for all who were historically disadvantaged”.
Mandela‚ who converted to Islam a few months before marrying his fourth wife‚ Rabia Clarke‚ in February last year‚ was responding to a proposal sent to the National Treasury by KwaZulu-Natal economic development MEC Sihle Zikalala in August‚ as reported in the Sunday Times this week. Zikalala’s proposal purportedly aims to “benefit black Africans”.
The Mvezo chief minced no words in his statement condemning the idea‚ warning against “myopic revisionism” and calling the proposal “a bird-brained scheme‚ coming barely a week after Forbes released its list of the 20 wealthiest South Africans containing only two black people (incidentally‚ both African)‚ with no black people of any description ranking in the top five”.
“The proposal flies in the face of the significant contribution that other sectors of the historically disadvantaged have made to the struggle for freedom‚ justice and democracy‚” Mandela continued.