The Freedom Front Plus has asked the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and Amazon Web Services to explain the basis for a 100% black-ownership requirement in the company’s Equity Equivalent Programme.
The party said it wants clarity on whether the threshold is required by South African law, the applicable broad-based black economic empowerment code, the terms of the approved programme or a condition set by AWS.
FF Plus trade, industry and competition spokesperson Jaco Mulder said the party was not alleging that the requirement was unlawful under broad-based black economic empowerment legislation.
He said the party intended to approach authorities in the United States to ask whether the condition was consistent with policy governing racial discrimination by federal contractors.
The party has not approached the South African department directly, Mulder told SABC News. He said it was already aware of the department’s policy and compliance requirements.
Equity-equivalent programmes allow eligible multinational companies that cannot meet conventional ownership targets to make approved investments supporting transformation and enterprise development.
The FF Plus said it supported investment and technology-sector job creation, but questioned why access to the programme should depend on the racial composition of a participating company’s shareholders.
Neither AWS nor the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition had provided a response in the report reviewed by EBNewsDaily. Their positions will be added if received.
The dispute concerns the stated entry condition for this specific programme. It does not establish that AWS’s wider South African operations breach empowerment legislation.
