The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a national billboard campaign arguing that the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) framework of the African National Congress (ANC) has failed, while promoting the party’s alternative “Economic Inclusion for All” bill.

In a statement issued by DA Head of Policy, Mat Cuthbert, the party says the billboard: “lays bare a truth South Africans already know: The ANC’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policy has failed. It has made a handful of politically connected individuals wealthy, while the rest of the country has been left behind.”

The statement continued: “For three decades, this policy has been sold as empowerment, but it has delivered the opposite. Millions remain locked out of the economy, with 12 million South Africans unable to find work and 44 million struggling just to afford their next meal.”

“While a few benefit from inflated contracts and state tenders, the majority continue to pay the price for corruption and greed,” the statement said.

Linking its campaign to legislative reform, the DA said: “That is why the DA has introduced the Economic Inclusion for All Bill that rewards job creation, skills development, and real community investment instead of political connections.”

According to the party: “This billboard captures the choice that now faces South Africa: continue down the same failed path that made ANC elites rich and left South Africa poor, or choose real opportunities for all by voting DA.”

The DA contrasts its approach with BEE, saying: “Unlike the ANC’s system that encourages fronting and patronage, the DA’s approach focuses on need, fairness, and tangible empowerment. It supports small businesses, removes red tape, and builds local economies where opportunity is earned, not given to the well-connected.”

Polling by the Social Research Foundation shows that strong majorities of South African voters have grown weary of old-style BEE policies and are ready to embrace new approaches to empowerment that focus on jobs and delivering value to taxpayers.

Last week both the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa said they were open to discussing the DA proposal that old-style empowerment policies be reformed.