LETTER: Racial laws a threat to majority

President Cyril Ramaphosa has provided a vehement defence of his party’s transformative policies, which are embodied in SA’s BEE and employment equity laws ( “Ramaphosa’s take on BEE is ‘off nominal’ at best, wrong at worst”, June 2). The president asks: are the naysayers merely greedy? Who would turn against the economic advancement of the black majority?

No, Mr President, those who oppose our ever-tightening racial straitjacket are not self-serving. The majority — not any minority — is threatened by your racial engineering. The fact of the matter is that the ANC’s racial empowerment policies have severely damaged the economic interests of the majority, those they purport to serve.

Black people’s participation in the economy has increased, but this is despite, not due to, so-called BEE. The forceful application of racial targets has destroyed many aspects of our government. In particular, the debilitation of state education, health and municipal services has gravely damaged the prospects of the majority, who are far more dependent on them than any minority.

It’s a bitter pill for the ANC to swallow, but the majority of South Africans would have been richer absent its racial engineering.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

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