Over the past week, the effectiveness of broad-based BEE in facilitating true economic empowerment has been brought under scrutiny. It all started with the DA announcing it has decided to dump BEE as a policy because it's not working. In the DA's view, it is the ANC's version of BEE that stands to be rejected rather than the idea of economic empowerment and inclusion. I'm not sure if there is any other version of BEE. The last time I checked it is the governing party that introduced the policy. In any event, to support this assertion, the DA's head of policy, Gwen Ngwenya, referred to multiple evaluation indicators, mainly inequality and unemployment, as either having regressed or stagnated in the era of BEE. A regime that has failed to tackle such primary challenges is, in the view of the DA, not fit for purpose and therefore stands to be abandoned. Smart people say that for democracy to work society needs credible and strong opposition parties. I would love to meet the DA bright s...

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