The Democratic Alliance has said they will take action with the courts to prevent the unlawful use of B-BBEE status, race, gender, age or disability as criteria for COVID-19 relief.
The DA has reported that a joint meeting involving the standing committee and select committees took place this morning, it has been said that there was a “heated exchange” while discussing the race-based criteria on COVID-19.
“To the surprise of many in last week’s meeting, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni admitted that he could not support a policy position that discriminated against business owners based on their race. When it came to documenting this in the committee’s report, there was heated debate.” said Dennis Ryder MP
“In reponse, the Co-Chairperson, Yunus Carrim today said that it annoyed the ANC when Mboweni spoke his mind. This drove further disagreement as the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Appropriations Dikaledi Mahlangu distanced herself from Carrim’s comment in the chat section of the virtual meeting.”
The opposing party has said that they reject the racialization of funds available for COVID-19 relief and have made claims that the ANC is facing struggles internally to determine the direction of the policy.
The priority at this time should be to save as many jobs as possible said the opposing party.
The DA will continue to address the issues and seek support from the courts.
