Hold Ramaphosa to account for his SONA admissions of failure, IRR urges MPs

With two days of parliamentary debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) having started today, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) will be monitoring how effectively MPs hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account – particularly on his neglecting Chief Justice Zondo’s recommendation that the state maximise value for money in its vast procurement spending. 

The recommendation is contained in the Zondo Commission report on state capture and corruption. 

Having written to the President in the run-up to SONA urging him to address the value-for-money principle in his speech, the IRR believes he missed the mark in avoiding the topic. While Ramaphosa made several admissions in his address about the failures of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy, which he continues to eagerly promote, he failed to squarely confront inadequacies resulting from non-adherence to value for money. 

The President promised last week that the government would be refining BBBEE “to ensure that it supports greater transformation and inclusive growth”, thus apparently confirming the IRR’s long-held position that BBBEE has so far served narrow interests and stifled growth. 

Says IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Makone Maja: “Members of parliament should seize the opportunity to exercise their constitutional obligation to hold the President accountable in view of these acknowledgements. He must be challenged about why he has defended a policy that even by his own assessment has kept the economy from creating  jobs and reducing poverty.” 

The IRR has provided all parliamentarians with questions with which to challenge the President on why the government has not adopted value for money as the bedrock of public procurement spending; whether he believes taxpayers are receiving value for money for their taxes, and why South Africans living in poverty should accept that their plight is an acceptable price to pay for the enrichment of a handful of wealthy tenderpreneurs.

Maja argues that the failure of MPs to raise these critical issues could expose them to accusations of complicity in the suffering of millions of South Africans, whose quality of life and prospects of employment have been harmed by the damage BBBEE has inflicted on service delivery and investment.

“Simply reforming BBBEE will not go far enough in reversing the harms it has caused, which range from institutional capture and corruption to declining service delivery and what the President himself described as ‘investment strikes’. There needs to be an overhaul based on legislating value for money in procurement, which the IRR is willing and able to assist with, as it has already codified the policy in its draft legislation, the Value For Money Bill,” Maja concludes.

Media contact: Makone Maja, IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za