South Africans back reform of the policy of black economic empowerment (BEE) and would support an empowerment policy that is based on actual disadvantage, rather than race.

This is according to a poll* from the Social Research Foundation, conducted in conjunction with The Common Sense in late February and early March.

The following statement was put to respondents: “The Democratic Alliance recently proposed a new policy. Its policy suggests that BEE be replaced by an empowerment policy that uses poverty, not race, to determine who is in need of upliftment. It argues that BEE has been abused to benefit an elite few, and its new policy will benefit those who really need it.”

Respondents could agree or disagree with the statement.

Sixty-three percent of respondents agreed with the statement, while 29% disagreed. Eight percent said they didn’t know or refused to answer.

A majority of black voters backed reform. Fifty-five percent agreed with the statement, while 34% disagreed, with 9% saying they didn’t know or refusing to answer.

Among supporters of the African National Congress (ANC) there was also strong support for reform of BEE.

Sixty percent of ANC supporters said they agreed with the statement, with 30% disagreeing, and 10% saying they did not know or refusing to answer.

Increasingly there seems to be acknowledgement among politicians that BEE must be reformed in some way. Privately such remarks are no longer uncommon, including around the upper echelons of government. The sense there is not that empowerment policies are not warranted but rather that the manner of their present execution taxes investor capital, making South Africa inherently uncompetitive as an investment destination.

It is broadly understood that the political price for this has been paid almost exclusively by the ANC, given the consequences that South Africa’s low rate of investment has had for economic growth and hence job creation.

*The Social Research Foundation Q1 2026 Market Survey was commissioned by the Social Research Foundation supported by The Common Sense and conducted by Victory Research using a nationally representative telephonic CATI survey of registered voters (N=2,222), with metro samples upsized to over 500 respondents each in Johannesburg (n=503), Tshwane (n=510), and eThekwini (n=503). Fieldwork was conducted between 16 February 2026 and 6 March 2026 using a single-frame random digit dialling sampling design that draws from all possible South African mobile numbers, ensuring equal probability of selection and near-universal coverage given SIM penetration above 250%, more than 90% adult phone ownership, and mobile network coverage of 99.8% of the population. Respondents were screened to include registered voters only, and turnout modelling assigned each respondent a probability of voting based on likelihood indicators, with the primary model assuming turnout of 56.0%. Data were weighted to ensure the national sample reflects the demographic profile of the registered voter population across language, age, race, gender, location (urban/rural), education, and income, while metro samples were weighted to the demographic composition of voters in each metro. Results are reported at a 95% confidence level with a design effect (DEFF) of 1.762, producing margins of error of 2.1% nationally and 4.4% for each metro sample.