BEE stands for ‘Black Elite Enrichment’ and must be stopped, says FF+

The Freedom Front Plus wants to see an end to Affirmative Action (AA) and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), since the policy has been used as a tool to advance corruption.

This was the message the party delivered on Saturday during the launch of its manifesto for the 2021 Local Government Elections in Pretoria, with the theme “Stop the decay”.

Watch this morning’s launch here:

FF+ leader Pieter Groenewald made it very clear how he feels about continued BEE policies, telling the small crowd in Parkview: “We will not tolerate Black Economic Empowerment. What we want is the best product at the best price to serve the taxpayers of the municipality. They always say BEE stands for Black Economic Empowerment, I say you are wrong. It stands for Black Elite Enrichment.”

The FF+ also called for an end to AA, saying municipalities must be audited to ensure that only qualified people occupy jobs, with MP Wouter Wessels calling for merits to be the only criteria used in appointments.

“Our main focus areas are the appointment of officials on merit, to get service delivery going, sound financial management and economic growth and lastly keeping Local Government local, because currently, we are not devolving power to the people.”

Groenewald said the FF+ has three key goals in improving municipalities. These are:

• Ensuring municipalities have the right staff in the right positions.
• Ensuring proper financial management.
• Improving economic development in municipalities.

“If you address those three aspects, you can make reach a meaningful point where you stop the decay and and reverse the process to ensure that you and I can create a better future, and that we can deliver better services,” Groenewald said.

“And I always tell people that all political parties like telling you ‘we will ensure better service delivery’, but here is a question for them. How will you do it? We in the Freedom Front Plus say we can ensure better service delivery by focusing on the employees, on financial management, and thirdly on economic development.”