IN THE SPOTLIGHT: BROAD-BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: BROAD-BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

• 31 October 2025
• In the Spotlight
• SA Legal Academy

Recent mainstream media commentary on the 2003 Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act and underpinning policy appears to have been triggered by a Government Gazette notice announcing  Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Mathew Cuthbert’s imminent tabling of a Public Procurement Amendment Bill in Parliament. Also calling for input on a draft version of this proposed new piece of legislation, the notice drew attention to its two key proposals.

As SA Legal Academy reported at the time, these are to:

• repeal provisions in the yet-to-be-commenced 2024 Public Procurement Act related to:
  • set asides
  • prequalification criteria for preferential procurement
  • subcontracting as a condition to bid, and
  • the designation of sectors for local production and content, and to
• repeal the B-BBEE Act.

 

At the time, the draft amendment Bill was only available from the DA  on request. As far as can be ascertained, it has still not been made public.

Shortly after Cuthbert’s announcement, acting government spokesperson Sandile Nene and his deputy, William Baloyi, issued a media statement among other things:

• reaffirming B-BBEE status as ‘a key policy instrument’:
  • ‘central to South Africa’s economic transformation’, and
  • ‘part of South Africa’s long-term strategy’ to:
    • ‘redress historic injustices’
    • ‘broaden economic participation’, and
    • ‘build a truly inclusive economy’.

Although the statement did not refer directly to the DA or their draft Bill, it underscored:

• the shared responsibility of all parties within the government of national unity’s ‘collective administration’ to ‘advance policies that contribute to economic transformation and sustainable development, as well as
• B-BBEE’s status as ‘a constitutional and moral imperative’.

In a statement of his own, Cuthbert referred to:

• ‘the gazetting of this Bill’ as a ‘first step in the legislative process that will bring South Africa a new, inclusive empowerment model ending decades of (black economic empowerment) BEE failure’, and
• the DA’s commitment to replacing BEE with ‘a needs-based system of empowerment’.

According to Wikipedia, South Africa’s government ‘has subscribed to an explicit policy of BEE since 1994’ – but ‘relaunched’ it in 2003 as ‘the more comprehensive, less ownership-focused B-BBEE programme’.

A page on the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (DTIC) website dedicated to B-BBEE:

• outlines the policy’s underlying principles
• notes the link between BBE and B-BBEE
• provides links to the 2014 B-BBEE Amendment Act (in force since October 2014), and
• provides links to sub-pages on:
  • B-BBEE industry-specific charters, and
  • industry-specific codes of good practice.

SA Legal Academy provides this information in the hope that it will be useful when Cuthbert’s Bill is tabled in Parliament and considered by the National Assembly committee concerned. This is especially bearing in mind that – as is the case with all Bills, regardless of their source – it is the responsibility of a National Assembly committee to consider the desirability of each piece of proposed new legislation referred to it for processing before embarking on the steps entailed.

• Government Gazette notice
• government media statement
• DA media statement
• Wikipedia on BEE
• DTIC B-BBEE website page

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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