Freedom for some is freedom for none says Ramaphosa on Freedom day as his government shuts white people whose income was cut off by the official lockdown out from government relief assistance. President Ramaphosa has held his official Freedom day speech on Monday 27 April 2020, and stressed the fact that nobody will have rights if only some have rights. He was of course heavily dwelling in the past and implying that all whites are privileged and rich and all black people don’t have rights and are poor.
The President also stressed the need for people to work together and stand together in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
His speech is ironic because the ANC has driven a social engineering scheme called BEE for 26 years.
It stands for Black Economic Empowerment and was misused over the years to favor ANC aligned black business people in official government spending. All large corporations were also forced to turn over large chunks of their shareholding to ANC aligned black business people. In short the ANC is already discriminating against the white minority and has in effect totally cut them out from the formal economic sector, including giving them jobs in government institutions and departments.
As we have previously reported the ANC government has even decided to have a blacks only approach with funds set aside to assist small business people who work for themselves and were cut off from earning a living with the hard lockdown imposed by the government.
The words of President Ramaphosa is therefore hollow in the face of the actions of his government. How can we all feel united if we as a minority is continually discriminated against and is even discriminated against in the face of a pandemic that is affecting all of us equally?
His government is also totally bypassing impoverished white people who were driven into squatter camps through the ANC economic policy that cuts white people out from the formal economy. Food parcels are being delivered in black townships but not in white squatter camps.
Solidarity directly challenges president Ramaphosa to drop race as criteria for Covid-19 assistance to business community.
Solidarity trade union has asked President Ramaphosa directly in a letter sent on Saturday 25 April 2020, to intervene in the Department of Tourism’s decision to only give assistance to people who qualify under the ANC’s BEE policy when it comes to COVID-19 assistance.
The Department of Tourism has made R 200 million available to small and medium sized businesses in the tourism industry as a relief fund during the COVID-19 lockdown period. These include all businesses in the sector like guest houses but the minister of Tourism has indicated that this assistance will only go to people who qualify under BEE and ” economic transformation” which is the ANC’s code for black people only.
Solidarity and Afriforum will be in court on Tuesday 28 April to challenge the decision.
They have now asked Pres Ramaphosa to rather intervene to make sure that assistance can go to everyone, irrespective of race. If the matter will not be settled out of Court, Solidarity and Afriforum will proceed with the Court application. The cut off date for Pres Ramaphosa to react is Monday 27 April. Solidarity has pointed out in the letter that black people who constitute only 7% of the sector will qualify for 100 % of the R 200 million in the COVID-19 assistance relief fund.
This is so because a lot of white people are small business owners in the sector, where they also employ a lot of black people. Solidarity has pointed out many legal arguments in the letter to Pres Ramaphosa of why the actions of the Tourism Department is illegal when it comes to their COVID-19 relief fund.
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