The lobby group and trade union Solidarity have approached the court on an urgent basis and the matter is being heard in court on Tuesday.

They want the decision by Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubani to have BBBEE set as a requirement when allocating funding from the tourism relief fund reviewed and set aside.

The Department of Tourism has instituted a points system, where the BBBEE Level is considered and for this requirement, companies can be given a maximum of 20 points out of 100.

AfriForum’s Greta Engelbrecht has argued that the tourism relief fund could be understood as a BBBEE Fund because it couldn’t serve the purpose of socio-economic strategies

“If you look at the particular definition of what the BEE Act says and what the objectives of the act are, it’s about greater ownership, it’s about advancing managers and we’re saying none of this can be achieved by a once-off grant of R50,000.”

She said the disaster management regulations confined the minister to give directions to matters relating to COVID-19 and did not include empowerment goals.

AfriForum believed that because of the BEE scoring system, white businesses at their best, would not be able to compete with black-owned businesses.

Eyewitness News