Lobby group AfriForum and trade union Solidarity on Wednesday instructed their legal teams to also bring an urgent application for review against the Minister and Department of Small Business Development over the use of black economic empowerment (BEE) racial requirements in the provision of relief to enterprises that apply to government due to hardship bought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both organisations recently brought a similar case against the Tourism Minister Mamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane regarding the coronavirus relief funding.

AfriForum’s intended legal action follows Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni yesterday stating in a parliamentary meeting that BEE requirements would indeed be applicable when applications for relief were considered.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel has accused Ntshavheni of being dishonest, by on March 24 making out that a statement by AfriForum was fake news. AfriForum had said that her department had initially said it would not be using racial criteria in the provision of relief and, just more than a month later, proudly announced that racial criteria would indeed play a role.

“As if it is not unethical enough that government is even in this time of crisis promoting a racial agenda, the situation is being worsened by the Minister’s deliberate misrepresentations.”

According to Kriel, the Minister’s lies may have delayed AfriForum’s legal action against her department, but she would not be able to avoid it. “AfriForum will take this matter to the highest court to ensure that justice is done.”

Meanwhile, trade union Solidarity had also written to  Ntshavehni to request that she refrain from using race as criterion for access to relief funds during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The union says the Minister’s acknowledgement contradicted the declaration under oath which Solidarity received from her ministry.

Earlier, on March 25, Solidarity filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission because it believed the race requirements to qualify for relief funding were discriminatory.

Solidarity CEO Dr Dirk Hermann said it was shocking that a Minister was prepared to declare under oath that race would not be a criterion for the allocation of emergency relief, and now, straight after the Department of Tourism court case, she confirmed it to be a criterion after all. “The Minister is committing perjury,” he said.

He said his union would continue with urgent civil action against the department to have the discriminatory race criterion for relief funds declared unlawful, should Solidarity not receive an undertaking by the department by 13:00 on May 1, 2020 that this requirement would be scrapped.