AfriForum today submitted court documents at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to request that the court orders Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance, to use his discretion in terms of section 3 of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act 5 of 2000 to acquit all state organs that purchase and sell goods and services related to the vaccine programme from all Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements. The case was placed on the court roll for 18 May 2021.
It is in the public interest that the purchase of vaccines is indemnified from BEE requirements, because BEE firstly slows down the process quite a lot, and secondly there is prima facie evidence of far-reaching corruption when it comes to the tender and purchasing processes.
“It has already been proven in the past that BEE policies largely serve as a smokescreen for corruption, cadre deployment and the enrichment of persons with the right political connections. If one pays attention to the overwhelming evidence from the past, the Minister of Finance has a duty to prevent this type of racial interference with vaccines,” says Ernst van Zyl, Campaign Officer for strategy and content at AfriForum.