Explainer: PEPUDA - Breaking Freedom to achieve broken outcomes

PEPUDA, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, was adopted two decades ago to help bar unfair discrimination. Now it is being changed -  giving the government enormous powers in its pursuit of the equality of outcomes that just cannot be attained.This will simply bankrupt many businesses, rather than increase the growth and jobs that people need to get ahead. 

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Transcript

Equality before the law – where the law treats everyone the same, no matter who they are

Equality of opportunity – where everyone gets a fair chance to build the life they choose to work for.

Equality of outcomes – an impossible goal because people are too different in their interests, experiences, and skills to have the same qualifications, incomes, and savings.

PEPUDA, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, was adopted two decades ago to help bar unfair discrimination. It went wrong in also trying to promote equality of outcomes – though these damaging clauses were never brought into effect.

Now PEPUDA is being changed, in keeping with toxic and radical ideas like Critical Race Theory (CRT), to put even more emphasis on equality of outcomes.

PEPUDA is mutating to demand, for example, equal outcomes between the poor and the better off. But this will simply bankrupt many businesses, rather than increase the growth and jobs that people need to get ahead.

Some clauses in the new mutated PEPUDA will also make any form of discrimination illegal even if it is not intended and it is not unfair!

This difference between fair and unfair is important.

Examples of discrimination that are not unfair:

• a place of worship only granting membership to people who hold a particular faith;
• younger car owners paying more for car insurance than older, more experienced ones.

The new mutated PEPUDA will make even such practices illegal. It also gives the government enormous powers in its pursuit of the equality of outcomes that just can’t be attained. 

Equality before the law is a key pillar of our Constitution. Equality of opportunity is vital too. But a government trying to enforce equality of outcomes will bankrupt businesses and destroy the freedom our Constitution is supposed to guarantee.

Against this, all freedom-loving South Africans must take a stand.

Illustration sources available here.