File: Western Cape Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) Helen Zille in 2011.
CAPE TOWN - Coercive equity quotas are a Verwoerdian wrong the DA should not and will not support, party leader Helen Zille said on Thursday.
Zille told the Cape Town Press Club this was why the Democratic Alliance needed to reject the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill and the Employment Equity Amendment Bill.
Ultimately, the revised legislative regime would impose "rigid racial-based quotas", she said.
"There was absolutely no excuse for the DA supporting Verwoerdian measures like that."
Zille was trying to clear up the Democratic Alliance&39;s very public policy spat on economic equality legislation, which she has termed a "plane crash" and which pitted her against the party&39;s parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and caucus.
