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Tshwane ban 'naked racism'
07/09/2007 21:09 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance is looking at the legality of the Tshwane metro council's reported ban on "white businesses" and the matter could even end up in the Constitutional Court, DA leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
According to Beeld newspaper, the council's municipal manager Kiba Kekana has approved a decision to award tenders exclusively to black-run small and medium-sized businesses (SMMEs), she said in her weekly online newsletter.
"Such a resolution amounts to naked racism and flies in the face of the Constitution, which explicitly states that government contracts for goods or services must be carried out in a system that is 'fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective', but which allows for the advancement of those disadvantaged by unfair discrimination."
In the vast majority of ANC-led local authorities, race and political connections had become the overriding consideration for awarding contracts.
"This was evident when the DA-led coalition replaced the ANC in Cape Town," Zille said.
Since then, the DA had opened opportunities instead of trying to manipulate outcomes, and the result was a 10% increase in the number of contracts awarded to black economic empowerment (BEE) companies.
Poor would suffer
"The award of tenders to BEE companies stands at 50% in Cape Town through an open and fair process which considers equity alongside other criteria in the awarding of contracts.
"By contrast, without a fair and competitive system in place, the ANC's manic obsession with race in Pretoria and other local authorities will only serve to disguise policies of cronyism and fool many people into believing that these policies promote black advancement, when they do the very opposite."
The predictable result would be spiralling costs, service delivery decline, business closures and loss of jobs. The poor, in particular, would suffer.
Zille said the DA's Pretoria caucus had written to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, as well as the Gauteng finance MEC, to bring to their attention what "we firmly believe to be an unconstitutional practice".
"I have also instructed my office to explore our legal options should their response not be favourable and I am fully prepared to take this matter all the way to the Constitutional Court if necessary," she said.
'Confidence trick'
The sentiments of the Constitution had been repeatedly echoed by National Treasury, who had forbidden the exclusion of certain categories of bidders, saying that such practice "has to be reviewed and corrected".
Treasury had made it clear that municipalities and municipal entities were required to give all potential suppliers an opportunity to bid for government contracts.
"So far this confidence trick has succeeded in convincing millions of dispossessed South Africans that this policy serves their interests. The opposite is true," Zille said.
- SAPA
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