There has been a social media storm following two stories in South Africa. Firstly the announcement that the Tourism sector's relief fund for SMME's (Small, medium and micro-enterprises) would be guided by B-BBEE and secondly a story circulating about "200 food parcels destined for poor whites confiscated by police".
The anger over B-BBEE as a requirement ^
The story about stolen food parcels ^
The two stories received a huge backlash especially among sections of the white population who believe there is a "white genocide", believe they are persecuted for being white, hate BEE or have little faith in the government.
The primary purpose of the B-BBEE act (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment) is to address the legacy of apartheid and promote the economic participation of Black People in the South African economy. Unfortunately some white South Africans have either a poor understanding of what it entails or an unwillingness to participate. Thus the following reaction to the two stories:
Let's look in depth at each of the stories:
1) "200 food parcels confiscated by police from our church in front of the white squatter camp. They said food will not be dropped off for whites" - Viral post
To the average person it sounds unbelievable but to those that believe the whites of South Africa are an oppressed and persecuted minority it makes perfect sense. Well it turned out the story was not true. The South African Police service debunked the claim.
Then there are the images attached to the viral post. We found out where they are from:
The story came out around the time the government stopped people from dropping off food parcels without a permit. This applies to all citizens not just whites.
2) The Tourism minister revealed that the COVID-19 Relief fund will be guided by B-BBEE.
As seen in the screenshots at the top of the page, some whites were angered by this announcement and saw it as the government excluding them completely due to their skin color.
Are whites excluded from applying? No, anyone can apply to receive aid.
And when the Tourism department looks at an application for aid, they give a score out of 100, of which BEE only makes up 20 marks.
The court case: AfriForum challenged the government’s decision to use broad-based black economic empowerment scores, to determine who its eligible for the R200 million in emergency funding for tourism-related businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the High Court Judge Jody Kollapen dismissed the application by Afriforum, stating that the criteria of B-BBEE codes of good practice did not perpetuate unfair advantage by black companies. Why did Afriforum pursue this course of action? To put things into context, earlier this year AFriforum launched the "World must know" campaign. A world tour to spread the word about white Afrikaner "minority" persecution in South Africa. Link:
Link:
https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/johan-pienaar-afriforum-has-captured-afrikaner-identity-shaazia-ebrahim/ Court case story: https://northcoastcourier.co.za/152687/high-court-rules-tourism-relief-fund-will-not-create-insurmountable-advantage/
Have white-owned companies received government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic? Yes, multibillion-rand contracts. Link:
Lastly, whites are not banned from receiving SASSA COVID19 social grants (as stated by some right wing blogs and vloggers). The website ANC Sanctioned Genocide made such a claim. Here's who is eligible for the Covid-19 social grant:
be a South African citizen or permanent resident in possession of an ID document
be over 18 years old
be unemployed and not receiving any income or social grant
not receive or qualify for any unemployment insurance benefit
not receive a stipend from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme
not reside in a government funded or subsidised institution
Source:
White South Africans have not suffered economically since the fall of apartheid:
According to StatsSA's most recent statistics on poverty, only 1% of white South Africans or 47,494 people are estimated to living in poverty. Using a different method to calculate poverty, the SADLR determined 82,573 or 1.8% of whites were living in poverty*.
Of the +30 million South Africans living in poverty, less than 0.0026% are white.
Statistically, white households earn 3 times more than black families while black households still have the lowest income and the highest unemployment**.
Sources:
*
**
Opmerkingen