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DA resolution: Empowering South Africa through broad inclusion compact

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Despite political inclusion, 23 years after democracy many still experience economic and social exclusions that are rooted in the exclusions of the past. The DA believes the private sector has an important role to play in eradicating exclusion and ensuring inclusive growth for the future. The government cannot solve all the country’s problems.

It is the DA’s aim to break down the boundaries between economic insiders and outsiders which are enforced by systematic exclusion; exclusion from a safe and secure environment, exclusion from efficient transport, exclusion from decent education and healthcare etc. An effective empowerment policy would bring the innovative capacity, resources, expertise, entrepreneurial passion and risk taking of the private sector to bear on all these issues instead of a narrow focus on ownership and management control which can only benefit a few.

Narrow and prescriptive empowerment legislation, such as B-BBEE, that focuses on ownership and control is costly and undervalues other contributions which businesses can and do make in society including:

  • Creating and retaining jobs
  • Providing clean energy and water purification plants in rural communities or other social impact investments
  • Awarding scholarships and/or building technology labs for under-resourced schools
  • Setting up shop in new locations outside of the primary commercial hubs, thus growing secondary cities and towns
  • Mixed-use social housing developments
  • Providing affordable healthcare of a quality superior to the public healthcare system

The Business Climate Survey released in 2017 by the EU Chamber of Commerce and Industry cites B-BBEE as the primary disincentive for business in SA.

The resolution on an inclusion compact asks congress to discuss the introduction of an empowerment policy which, like social grants, places disadvantage at the core of identifying beneficiaries. In addition, this new approach must allow each business to develop a social impact strategy that aligns to its competitive interests. Just as the social contributions made by NGOs and volunteer organisations differ to meet wide ranging societal needs. Lastly, this flexibility should not mean a lack of measurability. Congress will discuss the suitability of aligning how South Africa measures social contribution and sustainable business practices with global best practice. In this regard the DA would work with the financial services industry, civil society, and the domestic and foreign investment community to develop an empowerment index, like ESG indices already familiar to financial markets, to replace the parochial and internationally unfamiliar BBB-EE scorecard.

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