Disabled whites in for raw deal - union

2012-02-07 22:34

Pretoria - South Africa's black economic empowerment process is "racial" and has nothing to do with preventing discrimination, the trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.

Deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said that proposed changes to the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act (BBBEE Act) would lead the exclusion of disabled whites from any form of empowerment.

"The exclusion of white people from empowerment is turning South Africa's empowerment process into a purely racial process instead of a bona fide anti-discrimination process."

The anticipated amendment to the BBBEE Act comes after a regulation of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act was adopted in December 2011.

Hermann said: "The state effectively kicked white people with disabilities out of empowerment legislation in December last year."

The deadline for commenting on the proposed amendments to the BBBEE Act was Tuesday (today).

"Solidarity... lobbied for the inclusion of this group in all definitions in legislation regulating empowerment," said Hermann.

He said white people with disabilities were currently included in the definition of the designated group in the Employment Equity Act which regulated affirmative action, but had already been removed from the BBBEE Act's definition of the disabled people group.

The proposed amnedments would result in employers earning no BEE points for employing disabled whites but would get BEE points for employing a well-off black person who was not disabled, Hermann said.

- SAPA