DA: Coronavirus business relief should not be racialised
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has lashed out at what it claims to be government’s plans to use race as a way of allocating coronavirus relief funds to businesses.
This comes after an unverified draft document from the Department of Small Business Development was leaked, stipulating 51% black ownership as a requirement for receiving money from the business relief fund.
The document has since been dismissed by the government as fake news.
But DA interim leader John Steenhuisen claims government still plans on allocating funds based on race.
“Government immediately set about reassuring South Africans that these relief measures would be available to all, regardless of race. However, it is fast becoming apparent that this was never the intention, and that race was always going to one of the deciding criteria when applying for government assistance.
He adds that black employees will suffer the most from the racial profiling.
“The bitter irony is that it is employees who will suffer the effects of this folly more than employers, and that the overwhelming majority of the former will be black.
“Government cannot threaten the livelihoods of thousands of desperate South Africans for the sake of ensuring a hollow victory for racial nationalism.”