Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered this morning by ActionSA President, Herman Mashaba, at the launch of ActionSA’s Economic Transformation Agenda at the Apartheid Museum. His remarks are available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebE_b2_CRso
Members Dumelang;
Molweni;
Sanbonani;
Goeie More;
Avuxeni;
Nda;
Good Morning,
I extend my greetings to all political, business, and civil society leaders here gathered this morning, as well as the group of young school leavers from the class of 2024 who have also joined us.
We have invited you here today, because the discussion around the constitutional objective of transformation in our country has stalled.
The choice of the Apartheid Museum to host this occasion is not accidental.
We chose to gather here to remind everyone of where we come from, as a country, and of the work that must still be done to take South Africa as far away as possible from the horrors of its past and closer to the realisation of its democratic vision of a more inclusive society, with no one left behind because of the colour of their skin, their ethnic or gender identity, or religious choice.
On one extreme is a politically connected elite that clings to BBBEE as a re-enrichment programme, despite the evidence all around us that BBBEE is clearly a failed policy; on the other extreme are those that callously say that we should just get-over the past, as it has already been 31 years since apartheid ended.
They base this position on the bizarre belief that 30 years of democratic government could balance out so many more years of systemic oppression and dispossession.
Imagine this when 31 years of ANC government has deepened racial patterns of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
In-between these extremes is the reasonable, rational centre of our country, the majority, who can tell the difference between the noble objective of transformation and the policies of BBBEE that have failed to transform our country.
These South Africans know that our country will never become a nation for as long as the legacy of our past remains so clearly evident in the ownership patterns of our present.
It is to these South Africans that I speak today, when I call for a national dialogue on transformation to develop alternatives to the failed policies of BBBEE.
In this regard, ActionSA will be tabling a Draft Resolution in the National Assembly, in terms of Rule 119, to initiate the establishment of an Ad-Hoc Committee tasked with the critical mandate to investigate, deliberate, and shape urgent reforms aimed at achieving genuine and transformative economic justice.
Importantly, we embark on this effort to bridge partisan divides and build genuine consensus, establishing a dedicated and constitutionally empowered platform that will not merely culminate in rhetoric, but in real legislative reforms that advance economic justice in South Africa.
Joining us today is our Parliamentary Caucus Chairperson, Dr Kgosi Letlape, who will speak further on this bold legislative initiative right after this.
The frightening reality is that we can no longer speak about the “previously marginalised”, because the marginalisation has not stopped after the end of apartheid.
It continues even as I stand before you here, today through sub-standard education, failed economic policy, corruption and the complete failure to manage immigration.
In truth, democratic, post-apartheid administrations had their job cut out for them.
Considered widely as the “government for the people by the people”, they were meant to bring about new policies and the implementation thereof that would, over time, not only replace harsh, racially discriminatory apartheid-era laws, but to also ensure that the socio-economic playing fields are levelled to bring about the just, inclusive, society that our Constitution calls for.
Let me remind you, the Preamble to our Constitution states that:
“We, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of our past; Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to;
– Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights;
– Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
– Improve the quality of life for all citizens and free the potential of each person; and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.”
Ladies and gentlemen, it has been clear from the start that we could not reasonably expect to build the South Africa described in our Constitution without developing new legislation that would take ‘head-on’ apartheid era legislation that had been put in place to crash any potential of and to totally humiliate black people in South Africa.
The list is very long, but the following selection of apartheid-era laws – from the oldest to the newest before the end of apartheid – will give you an idea if you have either forgotten or never knew, of the extent to which apartheid era governments were prepared to go to achieve their aims:
– Mines and Works Act – 1959
– Natives Land Act – 1913
– Natives Urban Areas Act – 1923
– Representation of Natives Act – 1936
– Native Trust and Land Act -1936
– Natives Urban Areas Consolidation Act -1945
– Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representatives Act -1946
– Native Laws Amendment Act – 1949
– Population Registration Act -1950
– Group Areas Act -1950
– Immorality Amendment Act – 1950
– Suppression of Communism Act – 1950
– Native Building Workers Act – 1951
– Bantu Authorities Act – 1951
– Separate Representation of Voters Act – 1951
– Pass Laws – 1952
– Reservation of Separate Amenities Act – 1953
– Natives Labour Act – 1953
– Bantu Education Act – 1953
– Natives Resettlement Act – 1954
– Extension of University Education Act – 1959
– Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act – 1950
– Unlawful Organizations Act – 1960
– Preservation of Coloured Areas Act – 1961
– Coloured Persons Communal Reservation Act – 1961
– Urban Bantu Councils Act – 1961
– Rural Coloured Areas Act – 1963
– Indians Education Act – 1965
– Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act – 1970
– Bantu Homelands Constitution Act – 1971
– Aliens Control Act – 1973
– Coloured Persons Education Act – 1985
Now, I’m citing these always not to spite or, as many like to claim, for the pleasure of dwelling in the past.
I do so to remind you of the pervasiveness of the apartheid legacy that was meant to inform the work that post-apartheid administration had to do to undo the socio-economic ravages of many decades of apartheid, as envisaged in the Constitution.
What we have seen instead, are successive ANC administrations that were expected to constitute “a government for the people by the people” becoming, one after another, “governments for the politically connected by their comrades.”
You needed to be a cadre with “struggle credentials”, or connected to one, to seriously benefit from the corrective transformative ANC policies.
Those who did not meet this criterion either had peanuts thrown at them or were entirely left out in the cold.
This is where the expression “It is cold outside the ANC” come from. No shame!
Under the ANC, we saw the enactment of laws such as:
– Affirmative Action / Employment Equity Act, and
– Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Laws
While the introduction of these laws was noble, aimed at responding to the constitutional call for redress and the transformation of the South African society into a just society freed of the discriminations of the past, their implementation has proven to be poor, weakened by all manners of incompetence and selective application in favour of individuals and companies linked to people in the political elite of the former liberation movement, the ANC, and its Tripartite Alliance partners, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party.
As a result, countless opportunities to improve the lives of ordinary black South Africans, the masses of apartheid-era marginalised individuals and communities, have either been squandered or missed.
As I stand before you today, in May 2025, there is, unfortunately, very little to show of the gains of these transformation laws.
What is more, the discussion around transformation has stalled in our country through a spectacular failure of imagination that has led people to believe that our choice is either BBBEE or nothing – like an alternative could not exist.
This cannot be allowed to continue while 60% of young people remain without the prospects of employment or further studies.
ActionSA is for transformation, but not of the failed ANC kind.
ActionSA is for grass-root empowerment of those discriminated against in the past, but we are against re-empowering, over and over again, the same connected political elite.
Here today, are school leavers who successfully matriculated last year.
Their families moved heaven and earth for their education and these young people worked hard.
But yet not one amongst them yet has the opportunity of further studies or employment.
There can be no transformation in South Africa until these young South Africans have a pathway to realise their potential.
As ActionSA, we will put forward a basket of essential policy levers into this new national dialogue on transformation designed to produce real, measurable change.
If implemented as we intend them to be, they will respond directly and effectively to the constitutional call for redress that has long been ignored.
These are:
1. Inclusive Economic Empowerment
2. Social Investment Grants
3. Housing, Land Reform, and Spatial Justice
4. Gender Justice
5. Social Cohesion
Mindful of the vast expanse and devastating reach of the apartheid-era laws I cited earlier, we must be clear: there is no single intervention that will bring about transformation.
We cannot afford a silo approach. Our response must be systemic. It must look not only at the economy, but at the entire society, including access to land, spatial planning, education, healthcare, safety & security, and more.
ActionSA is not opposed to Black Economic Empowerment. On the contrary, we believe that economic justice is a historic imperative.
But we are opposed to the narrow, corrupt, and politically manipulated fashion in which it has been implemented – an approach that has entrenched inequality rather than dismantled it.
For decades, the ANC has chased the illusion of equality of outcome, handing wealth to the connected few while leaving the majority behind.
What we need now is a model that creates equality of opportunity for all. A model that breaks down the real barriers that keep millions excluded from the promise of freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me expand briefly on the five levers we propose – not as vague ideals, but as concrete, actionable proposals that we will champion in our proposed national transformation dialogue.
First, on Inclusive Economic Empowerment, we are proposing a fundamental shift from elite enrichment to grassroots empowerment.
At the centre of this approach is the Inclusive Economic Empowerment Act, which will establish a bold new vehicle: the Opportunity Fund.
This fund will replace the failed BBBEE framework, through which the ANC has tried – and failed – for two decades to engineer transformation by enriching politically connected tenderpreneurs.
Instead of reinforcing inequality under the guise of empowerment, we will focus on real investment in real people.
The Opportunity Fund will invest in tertiary education, entrepreneurial stimulus, and public infrastructure in under-served communities.
It will fund the schools, clinics, broadband, transport, and business hubs that unlock real economic participation. And it will do so in a way that builds new wealth, not redistributes it upward to the elite.
We will capitalise the fund through a 5% Opportunity Fund Levy on company profits, replacing the 4% to 6% currently spent on BBBEE compliance.
SMMEs will be exempt, and the levy will be time-bound: 30 years, no more, with clear milestones and regular progress assessments.
This bold measure is projected to raise R55.7 billion in its first year, growing annually in line with the economy. And, unlike BBBEE, this money won’t go to auditing consultants and empowerment fronting schemes.
It will go directly to building the foundations of opportunity.
For this to happen, we appeal for economic patriotism that, I guarantee you, will not be linked to a toxic system of patronage.
We invite big business to place “public good” at the centre of their corporate action.
While we will ensure that possible loopholes for tax avoidance are closed, we will also call for laws that will go after those who will try tricks to avoid playing their part.
Business auditors who help their corporate clients dodge their tax responsibilities, together with such clients, will be liable for a minimum 5-year jail term without the option of a fine.
Second, Social Investment Grants.
We will preserve the dignity and security that social grants provide, but we will do so with a clear purpose: to reduce dependency, not entrench it.
Our approach is rooted in the belief that no South African should be condemned to celebrate a life on R370 a month.
We will introduce a Universal Basic Income Stimulus – a three-year, unconditional cash transfer to adult citizens and permanent residents.
Linked to poverty thresholds, the UBIS will pay R790 per month in year one, R1,101 in year two, and R1,622 in year three.
This programme alone is projected to grow the economy by at least 2 percentage points and create an additional 1.6 million jobs.
We will also review and expand other grants, while digitising the system to ensure faster, fairer, more transparent access.
But let me be clear: the success of such measures must not be judged by how many people remain dependent on grants, but by how many we empower to leave the grant system behind altogether.
Third, Housing, Land Reform, and Spatial Justice. Apartheid spatial planning remains largely intact. Millions still live far from work, locked into poverty by the simple injustice of distance.
ActionSA will release hijacked buildings and idle public land to expand affordable housing close to jobs. We will fast-track title deed transfers, unlock serviced sites, and reform exclusionary zoning laws.
We will make it possible for a working-class family to own property, build intergenerational wealth, and live with dignity.
Land reform will be accelerated, but it will be done within the Constitution, and with a clear focus: to expand opportunity, not fuel political theatre.
Access to land must mean access to ownership – and to the support and financing that makes it productive.
Fourth, Gender Justice. If we want transformation to be real, it must be gendered.
Our economy remains fundamentally unequal for women – especially black women. ActionSA will remove VAT on menstrual and contraceptive products, expand affordable childcare, and enforce equal pay for equal work.
We will empower girls to enter STEM fields, support working mothers, and enforce real consequences for gender-based violence and workplace discrimination.
This is not about ticking boxes. It’s about removing the structural barriers that prevent women from participating fully and equally in society.
Equality of opportunity means ensuring that a young girl in a rural village has the same chance to thrive as anyone else in this country.
Fifth, Social Cohesion. A nation cannot transform if it is divided against itself.
We will invest in youth development, mental health services, and community safety, so that people have the support they need to contribute meaningfully to their communities.
We will promote ethical leadership, encourage a culture of mutual respect, and build national pride rooted in shared responsibility – not manufactured slogans.
True cohesion is not built by ignoring our differences, but by recognising the humanity in one another, and working together to ensure no one is left behind.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We’re all part of an ecosystem, a fragile South African ecosystem whose various parts must be supported and strengthened to make their fair contribution and to benefit from the whole.
If one part remains neglected, it will be just a matter of time before what ails it reaches and affects other parts and the whole ecosystem malfunctions. It is as simple as that.
Black economic empowerment is a historic imperative that we shall not shy away from.
But it is also an imperative that must be addressed with care, not hatred or retribution.
We must also be able to determine key progress milestones in implementation so that it doesn’t have to go on forever, ending up having an overall negative impact on society by simply transferring pain from one part of our ecosystem to others.
That should not be our aim.
Our aim must be to bring about sustainable healing so that all South Africans, irrespective of their background, get to experience and enjoy their place under the South African sun.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us also face this; none of what we propose here can be achieved while our country’s borders remain porous, often managed by corrupt border and Home Affairs officials who take bribes to let in foreigners who come into the country to compete with South Africans for the most basic of jobs, economic opportunities, and social services like housing, education, and healthcare.
We cannot reasonably expect to heal our legacy pain by spreading our limited resources so thin that we try to solve the problems of other countries, which are often led by uncaring leaders who take all the resources of their countries for themselves and push their own people to cross into South Africa to seek better lives.
We must protect poor South Africans, who are often black, from unfair encroachment and competition by foreigners, specifically those who come illegally through our borders and immigration services.
ActionSA will propose positive job reservation tools for South Africans, ensuring that only foreigners who bring rare, critical skills, and investments that create employment for South Africans, first and foremost, are allowed to come and work or run businesses in our country.
Political refugees must be properly vetted in accordance with South African law and our international obligations, and their cases must be treated on individual merit before they’re allowed to remain and earn a living in South Africa if they meet the requirements.
If we remain shy to engage in difficult conversations, or allow failed ANC policies and approaches to continue, I can assure that we shall keep having the same conversation decade after decade, with new groups of frustrated school leavers, wondering why the situation remains unchanged.
You will agree with me, ladies and gentlemen, that this too cannot be allowed to continue.
Thank you!
Announced Legislative Action by Dr Kgosi Letlape MP
ActionSA will, in accordance with Rule 119 of the National Assembly, table the following draft resolution. In terms of Rule 253(1)(a), the resolution mandates the establishment of an ad hoc Parliamentary Committee, which will be entrusted with the following responsibilities:
1. Investigate South Africa’s post-1994 legislative framework aimed at transforming the country’s economy, with a specific focus on evaluating the actual outcomes of these laws in relation to their stated objectives;
2. Conduct substantive public hearings to gather views from ordinary South Africans, relevant experts, business and industry, civil society organisations, and academics regarding the persistent structural inequalities and potential interventions;
3. Facilitate the receipt of proposals by way of substantive submissions from all political parties represented in the National Assembly;
4. Consider all submissions and identify the legislative and policy reforms required to effect economic justice and achieve the vision of the Constitution, and propose such interventions to the National Assembly.
The value in pursuing this legislative mechanism lies in its ability to achieve the following:
1. Foster national consensus — It aims to build broad-based agreement on the way forward, without imposing a singular viewpoint to the exclusion of others, and ensures that differing perspectives are subject to open and fair deliberation.
2. Enable constituency-empowered reform — In a context where no single party commands a majority, this mechanism provides an opportunity for meaningful, constituency-driven engagement. It breaks the cycle of endless dialogues and instead advances concrete legislative reform grounded in accountability rather than rhetoric.
3. Reinforce Parliament’s central role — As the representative institution of the South African people, Parliament must lead this process. Legislation that addresses the national interest, particularly in advancing economic justice, must originate from inclusive and constructive parliamentary engagement.
ActionSA Announces Bold Initiatives for Meaningful Economic Justice in South Africa
Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered this morning by ActionSA President, Herman Mashaba, at the launch of ActionSA’s Economic Transformation Agenda at the Apartheid Museum. His remarks are available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebE_b2_CRso
Members Dumelang;
Molweni;
Sanbonani;
Goeie More;
Avuxeni;
Nda;
Good Morning,
I extend my greetings to all political, business, and civil society leaders here gathered this morning, as well as the group of young school leavers from the class of 2024 who have also joined us.
We have invited you here today, because the discussion around the constitutional objective of transformation in our country has stalled.
The choice of the Apartheid Museum to host this occasion is not accidental.
We chose to gather here to remind everyone of where we come from, as a country, and of the work that must still be done to take South Africa as far away as possible from the horrors of its past and closer to the realisation of its democratic vision of a more inclusive society, with no one left behind because of the colour of their skin, their ethnic or gender identity, or religious choice.
On one extreme is a politically connected elite that clings to BBBEE as a re-enrichment programme, despite the evidence all around us that BBBEE is clearly a failed policy; on the other extreme are those that callously say that we should just get-over the past, as it has already been 31 years since apartheid ended.
They base this position on the bizarre belief that 30 years of democratic government could balance out so many more years of systemic oppression and dispossession.
Imagine this when 31 years of ANC government has deepened racial patterns of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
In-between these extremes is the reasonable, rational centre of our country, the majority, who can tell the difference between the noble objective of transformation and the policies of BBBEE that have failed to transform our country.
These South Africans know that our country will never become a nation for as long as the legacy of our past remains so clearly evident in the ownership patterns of our present.
It is to these South Africans that I speak today, when I call for a national dialogue on transformation to develop alternatives to the failed policies of BBBEE.
In this regard, ActionSA will be tabling a Draft Resolution in the National Assembly, in terms of Rule 119, to initiate the establishment of an Ad-Hoc Committee tasked with the critical mandate to investigate, deliberate, and shape urgent reforms aimed at achieving genuine and transformative economic justice.
Importantly, we embark on this effort to bridge partisan divides and build genuine consensus, establishing a dedicated and constitutionally empowered platform that will not merely culminate in rhetoric, but in real legislative reforms that advance economic justice in South Africa.
Joining us today is our Parliamentary Caucus Chairperson, Dr Kgosi Letlape, who will speak further on this bold legislative initiative right after this.
The frightening reality is that we can no longer speak about the “previously marginalised”, because the marginalisation has not stopped after the end of apartheid.
It continues even as I stand before you here, today through sub-standard education, failed economic policy, corruption and the complete failure to manage immigration.
In truth, democratic, post-apartheid administrations had their job cut out for them.
Considered widely as the “government for the people by the people”, they were meant to bring about new policies and the implementation thereof that would, over time, not only replace harsh, racially discriminatory apartheid-era laws, but to also ensure that the socio-economic playing fields are levelled to bring about the just, inclusive, society that our Constitution calls for.
Let me remind you, the Preamble to our Constitution states that:
“We, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of our past; Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to;
– Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights;
– Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
– Improve the quality of life for all citizens and free the potential of each person; and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.”
Ladies and gentlemen, it has been clear from the start that we could not reasonably expect to build the South Africa described in our Constitution without developing new legislation that would take ‘head-on’ apartheid era legislation that had been put in place to crash any potential of and to totally humiliate black people in South Africa.
The list is very long, but the following selection of apartheid-era laws – from the oldest to the newest before the end of apartheid – will give you an idea if you have either forgotten or never knew, of the extent to which apartheid era governments were prepared to go to achieve their aims:
– Mines and Works Act – 1959
– Natives Land Act – 1913
– Natives Urban Areas Act – 1923
– Representation of Natives Act – 1936
– Native Trust and Land Act -1936
– Natives Urban Areas Consolidation Act -1945
– Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representatives Act -1946
– Native Laws Amendment Act – 1949
– Population Registration Act -1950
– Group Areas Act -1950
– Immorality Amendment Act – 1950
– Suppression of Communism Act – 1950
– Native Building Workers Act – 1951
– Bantu Authorities Act – 1951
– Separate Representation of Voters Act – 1951
– Pass Laws – 1952
– Reservation of Separate Amenities Act – 1953
– Natives Labour Act – 1953
– Bantu Education Act – 1953
– Natives Resettlement Act – 1954
– Extension of University Education Act – 1959
– Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act – 1950
– Unlawful Organizations Act – 1960
– Preservation of Coloured Areas Act – 1961
– Coloured Persons Communal Reservation Act – 1961
– Urban Bantu Councils Act – 1961
– Rural Coloured Areas Act – 1963
– Indians Education Act – 1965
– Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act – 1970
– Bantu Homelands Constitution Act – 1971
– Aliens Control Act – 1973
– Coloured Persons Education Act – 1985
Now, I’m citing these always not to spite or, as many like to claim, for the pleasure of dwelling in the past.
I do so to remind you of the pervasiveness of the apartheid legacy that was meant to inform the work that post-apartheid administration had to do to undo the socio-economic ravages of many decades of apartheid, as envisaged in the Constitution.
What we have seen instead, are successive ANC administrations that were expected to constitute “a government for the people by the people” becoming, one after another, “governments for the politically connected by their comrades.”
You needed to be a cadre with “struggle credentials”, or connected to one, to seriously benefit from the corrective transformative ANC policies.
Those who did not meet this criterion either had peanuts thrown at them or were entirely left out in the cold.
This is where the expression “It is cold outside the ANC” come from. No shame!
Under the ANC, we saw the enactment of laws such as:
– Affirmative Action / Employment Equity Act, and
– Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Laws
While the introduction of these laws was noble, aimed at responding to the constitutional call for redress and the transformation of the South African society into a just society freed of the discriminations of the past, their implementation has proven to be poor, weakened by all manners of incompetence and selective application in favour of individuals and companies linked to people in the political elite of the former liberation movement, the ANC, and its Tripartite Alliance partners, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party.
As a result, countless opportunities to improve the lives of ordinary black South Africans, the masses of apartheid-era marginalised individuals and communities, have either been squandered or missed.
As I stand before you today, in May 2025, there is, unfortunately, very little to show of the gains of these transformation laws.
What is more, the discussion around transformation has stalled in our country through a spectacular failure of imagination that has led people to believe that our choice is either BBBEE or nothing – like an alternative could not exist.
This cannot be allowed to continue while 60% of young people remain without the prospects of employment or further studies.
ActionSA is for transformation, but not of the failed ANC kind.
ActionSA is for grass-root empowerment of those discriminated against in the past, but we are against re-empowering, over and over again, the same connected political elite.
Here today, are school leavers who successfully matriculated last year.
Their families moved heaven and earth for their education and these young people worked hard.
But yet not one amongst them yet has the opportunity of further studies or employment.
There can be no transformation in South Africa until these young South Africans have a pathway to realise their potential.
As ActionSA, we will put forward a basket of essential policy levers into this new national dialogue on transformation designed to produce real, measurable change.
If implemented as we intend them to be, they will respond directly and effectively to the constitutional call for redress that has long been ignored.
These are:
1. Inclusive Economic Empowerment
2. Social Investment Grants
3. Housing, Land Reform, and Spatial Justice
4. Gender Justice
5. Social Cohesion
Mindful of the vast expanse and devastating reach of the apartheid-era laws I cited earlier, we must be clear: there is no single intervention that will bring about transformation.
We cannot afford a silo approach. Our response must be systemic. It must look not only at the economy, but at the entire society, including access to land, spatial planning, education, healthcare, safety & security, and more.
ActionSA is not opposed to Black Economic Empowerment. On the contrary, we believe that economic justice is a historic imperative.
But we are opposed to the narrow, corrupt, and politically manipulated fashion in which it has been implemented – an approach that has entrenched inequality rather than dismantled it.
For decades, the ANC has chased the illusion of equality of outcome, handing wealth to the connected few while leaving the majority behind.
What we need now is a model that creates equality of opportunity for all. A model that breaks down the real barriers that keep millions excluded from the promise of freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me expand briefly on the five levers we propose – not as vague ideals, but as concrete, actionable proposals that we will champion in our proposed national transformation dialogue.
First, on Inclusive Economic Empowerment, we are proposing a fundamental shift from elite enrichment to grassroots empowerment.
At the centre of this approach is the Inclusive Economic Empowerment Act, which will establish a bold new vehicle: the Opportunity Fund.
This fund will replace the failed BBBEE framework, through which the ANC has tried – and failed – for two decades to engineer transformation by enriching politically connected tenderpreneurs.
Instead of reinforcing inequality under the guise of empowerment, we will focus on real investment in real people.
The Opportunity Fund will invest in tertiary education, entrepreneurial stimulus, and public infrastructure in under-served communities.
It will fund the schools, clinics, broadband, transport, and business hubs that unlock real economic participation. And it will do so in a way that builds new wealth, not redistributes it upward to the elite.
We will capitalise the fund through a 5% Opportunity Fund Levy on company profits, replacing the 4% to 6% currently spent on BBBEE compliance.
SMMEs will be exempt, and the levy will be time-bound: 30 years, no more, with clear milestones and regular progress assessments.
This bold measure is projected to raise R55.7 billion in its first year, growing annually in line with the economy. And, unlike BBBEE, this money won’t go to auditing consultants and empowerment fronting schemes.
It will go directly to building the foundations of opportunity.
For this to happen, we appeal for economic patriotism that, I guarantee you, will not be linked to a toxic system of patronage.
We invite big business to place “public good” at the centre of their corporate action.
While we will ensure that possible loopholes for tax avoidance are closed, we will also call for laws that will go after those who will try tricks to avoid playing their part.
Business auditors who help their corporate clients dodge their tax responsibilities, together with such clients, will be liable for a minimum 5-year jail term without the option of a fine.
Second, Social Investment Grants.
We will preserve the dignity and security that social grants provide, but we will do so with a clear purpose: to reduce dependency, not entrench it.
Our approach is rooted in the belief that no South African should be condemned to celebrate a life on R370 a month.
We will introduce a Universal Basic Income Stimulus – a three-year, unconditional cash transfer to adult citizens and permanent residents.
Linked to poverty thresholds, the UBIS will pay R790 per month in year one, R1,101 in year two, and R1,622 in year three.
This programme alone is projected to grow the economy by at least 2 percentage points and create an additional 1.6 million jobs.
We will also review and expand other grants, while digitising the system to ensure faster, fairer, more transparent access.
But let me be clear: the success of such measures must not be judged by how many people remain dependent on grants, but by how many we empower to leave the grant system behind altogether.
Third, Housing, Land Reform, and Spatial Justice. Apartheid spatial planning remains largely intact. Millions still live far from work, locked into poverty by the simple injustice of distance.
ActionSA will release hijacked buildings and idle public land to expand affordable housing close to jobs. We will fast-track title deed transfers, unlock serviced sites, and reform exclusionary zoning laws.
We will make it possible for a working-class family to own property, build intergenerational wealth, and live with dignity.
Land reform will be accelerated, but it will be done within the Constitution, and with a clear focus: to expand opportunity, not fuel political theatre.
Access to land must mean access to ownership – and to the support and financing that makes it productive.
Fourth, Gender Justice. If we want transformation to be real, it must be gendered.
Our economy remains fundamentally unequal for women – especially black women. ActionSA will remove VAT on menstrual and contraceptive products, expand affordable childcare, and enforce equal pay for equal work.
We will empower girls to enter STEM fields, support working mothers, and enforce real consequences for gender-based violence and workplace discrimination.
This is not about ticking boxes. It’s about removing the structural barriers that prevent women from participating fully and equally in society.
Equality of opportunity means ensuring that a young girl in a rural village has the same chance to thrive as anyone else in this country.
Fifth, Social Cohesion. A nation cannot transform if it is divided against itself.
We will invest in youth development, mental health services, and community safety, so that people have the support they need to contribute meaningfully to their communities.
We will promote ethical leadership, encourage a culture of mutual respect, and build national pride rooted in shared responsibility – not manufactured slogans.
True cohesion is not built by ignoring our differences, but by recognising the humanity in one another, and working together to ensure no one is left behind.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We’re all part of an ecosystem, a fragile South African ecosystem whose various parts must be supported and strengthened to make their fair contribution and to benefit from the whole.
If one part remains neglected, it will be just a matter of time before what ails it reaches and affects other parts and the whole ecosystem malfunctions. It is as simple as that.
Black economic empowerment is a historic imperative that we shall not shy away from.
But it is also an imperative that must be addressed with care, not hatred or retribution.
We must also be able to determine key progress milestones in implementation so that it doesn’t have to go on forever, ending up having an overall negative impact on society by simply transferring pain from one part of our ecosystem to others.
That should not be our aim.
Our aim must be to bring about sustainable healing so that all South Africans, irrespective of their background, get to experience and enjoy their place under the South African sun.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us also face this; none of what we propose here can be achieved while our country’s borders remain porous, often managed by corrupt border and Home Affairs officials who take bribes to let in foreigners who come into the country to compete with South Africans for the most basic of jobs, economic opportunities, and social services like housing, education, and healthcare.
We cannot reasonably expect to heal our legacy pain by spreading our limited resources so thin that we try to solve the problems of other countries, which are often led by uncaring leaders who take all the resources of their countries for themselves and push their own people to cross into South Africa to seek better lives.
We must protect poor South Africans, who are often black, from unfair encroachment and competition by foreigners, specifically those who come illegally through our borders and immigration services.
ActionSA will propose positive job reservation tools for South Africans, ensuring that only foreigners who bring rare, critical skills, and investments that create employment for South Africans, first and foremost, are allowed to come and work or run businesses in our country.
Political refugees must be properly vetted in accordance with South African law and our international obligations, and their cases must be treated on individual merit before they’re allowed to remain and earn a living in South Africa if they meet the requirements.
If we remain shy to engage in difficult conversations, or allow failed ANC policies and approaches to continue, I can assure that we shall keep having the same conversation decade after decade, with new groups of frustrated school leavers, wondering why the situation remains unchanged.
You will agree with me, ladies and gentlemen, that this too cannot be allowed to continue.
Thank you!
Announced Legislative Action by Dr Kgosi Letlape MP
ActionSA will, in accordance with Rule 119 of the National Assembly, table the following draft resolution. In terms of Rule 253(1)(a), the resolution mandates the establishment of an ad hoc Parliamentary Committee, which will be entrusted with the following responsibilities:
1. Investigate South Africa’s post-1994 legislative framework aimed at transforming the country’s economy, with a specific focus on evaluating the actual outcomes of these laws in relation to their stated objectives;
2. Conduct substantive public hearings to gather views from ordinary South Africans, relevant experts, business and industry, civil society organisations, and academics regarding the persistent structural inequalities and potential interventions;
3. Facilitate the receipt of proposals by way of substantive submissions from all political parties represented in the National Assembly;
4. Consider all submissions and identify the legislative and policy reforms required to effect economic justice and achieve the vision of the Constitution, and propose such interventions to the National Assembly.
The value in pursuing this legislative mechanism lies in its ability to achieve the following:
1. Foster national consensus — It aims to build broad-based agreement on the way forward, without imposing a singular viewpoint to the exclusion of others, and ensures that differing perspectives are subject to open and fair deliberation.
2. Enable constituency-empowered reform — In a context where no single party commands a majority, this mechanism provides an opportunity for meaningful, constituency-driven engagement. It breaks the cycle of endless dialogues and instead advances concrete legislative reform grounded in accountability rather than rhetoric.
3. Reinforce Parliament’s central role — As the representative institution of the South African people, Parliament must lead this process. Legislation that addresses the national interest, particularly in advancing economic justice, must originate from inclusive and constructive parliamentary engagement.