DA’s BEE stance may damage poll prospects
The party’s leaders say empowerment policies need to become less race-focused over time
Just as the DA appeared to have settled its battle with Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, the party is facing a fresh ideological row, which might damage its election prospects. At the weekend, DA leaders clashed over its policy on broad-based BEE. The party’s ideological direction is being challenged as it seeks to refine its policy before the 2019 elections. With less than a year to go before the national and provincial polls, the disagreement spilled into the public domain at the weekend when DA leaders took each other to task publicly. DA head of policy Gwen Ngwenya said the party had scrapped BEE from its economic policy. Party leaders attempting to hold the DA to its liberal roots praised the decision, while others made it clear that this had not been decided. DA federal council chairman James Selfe capitulated on Saturday and said that reports on the abandonment of BEE from the party’s economic policy were "untrue".He said the DA still believed race was a proxy for disadvant...
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