ANCYL warns of instability over B-BBEE and economic exclusion

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has issued a warning that South Africa will face instability if economic justice for the black majority is continually denied, criticizing recent court rulings that impact black economic empowerment (BEE) measures. Critiquing the Gauteng High Court's overturning of the Legal Sector Code and the Constitutional Court's rejection of the Public Procurement Act, ANCYL Secretary-General Tsakani Shiviti described these rulings as a "counter-revolutionary offensive" aimed at protecting economic power inherited from apartheid.

The ANCYL asserts that the law's color has changed, yet economic power concentration remains largely unchanged, emphasizing that political freedom without economic emancipation is incomplete liberation. They urge Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau to reconsider the Legal Sector Code within 90 days and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to ensure any replacement procurement legislation maintains B-BBEE preferences, set-asides, and subcontracting requirements.

The Legal Sector Code aimed to integrate the black majority into the legal profession, targeting 50% black ownership for large firms within five years, with 25% held by women. Major white-owned firms like Deneys, Bowmans, Webber Wentzel, and Werksmans challenged the code, with the courts ruling on technicalities rather than the code's transformative principle.

Similarly, the Constitutional Court struck down the Public Procurement Act due to deficiencies in public participation, not because transformation is unconstitutional. The ANCYL also questions a new Bill that may weaken procurement measures, calling on the ANC and government to publicly defend transformation, enforce employment equity and B-BBEE across sectors, and resist corporate pressure to weaken empowerment measures.

The organization stresses that despite political change, economic power remains concentrated among a few, with millions of young people facing unemployment and poverty, warning that if the black majority remains economically excluded, the country will burn. ANCYL President Collen Malatji asserts that the judiciary should defend the gains of freedom and not be used to reverse them.