Amazon investigated over ‘no whites’ business programme in South Africa

Trade union Solidarity said that it will investigate Amazon for excluding companies from a business development programme in South Africa based on the race of their owners.

This followed a Newsday report on Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Equity Equivalent Investment Program, which promotes diversity and inclusion in South Africa.

The programme only accepts 100% black-owned businesses and disqualifies any company where a white person is a shareholder.

The company launched its AWS Equity Equivalent Investment Program (EEIP) in 2019 as part of a R365 million investment to develop 100% black-owned businesses.

There is a focus on small businesses in information and communications technology (ICT) and the digital economy.

Amazon said it fosters diversity and inclusion globally and seeks to amplify underrepresented voices and empower diverse communities.

As such, the Amazon Web Services’ Equity Equivalent Investment Program has strict minimum eligibility criteria, including a prohibition on white businesses.

“You must be 100% black-owned as defined in the ICT Sector B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice,” Amazon explained.

“100% Black South African, as the term ‘black people’ is a generic term which means Africans, Coloureds, and Indians.”

Solidarity said that it will investigate reports that Amazon is excluding businesses from its programme in South Africa based on the race of their owners.

“Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) explicitly requires participating businesses to be 100% black-owned,” it said.

“This means that a business is excluded from the programme if even one of its shareholders is white.”

It added that there is “nothing diverse or inclusive about a programme where an owner’s race determines whether their business has access to economic opportunities”.

“Should it emerge that the programme does indeed amount to absolute racial exclusion, Solidarity will take decisive action,” it said.

“Amazon is a US multinational company that advocates equality and inclusion around the world.”

“It is therefore particularly concerning if a programme operated in South Africa excludes businesses based on their owners’ skin colour.”

“Exclusion based solely on race is precisely the kind of practice that Solidarity opposes both locally and internationally.”

Solidarity said that Amazon cannot promote one set of values on equality and non-discrimination to the world while applying a different standard in South Africa.

Newsday asked Amazon about its decision to exclude white businesses from the programme on the basis of race, but it did not answer this question.

Instead, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson said that the EEIP is one of the ways the company meets its legal obligations under South Africa’s B-BBEE Act.

“South Africa’s B-BBEE Act is legislation every company operating in the country must comply with,” the spokesperson said.

“The EEIP does not limit who we can engage with, and any business in South Africa can work with AWS.”

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann’s open letter to Amazon

Solidarity chief executive Dirk Hermann wrote an open letter to Amazon, titled “Remove Race from Your Support Programme”. This letter is provided in full below.

Dear Amazon,

The U.S. government rightly regards South Africa’s race-based policies as a barrier to trade.

One of the five key asks of the Trump administration is that race-based requirements imposed on American companies be removed.

Solidarity supports this position.

Yet Amazon, an American corporate giant, is going even further than South African law itself requires.

Only companies that are 100% black-owned qualify for one of Amazon’s support programmes in South Africa.

Any white shareholding disqualifies a company from participating in the programme.

Amazon calls this racially exclusive programme “diversity”.

There is a glaring contradiction here: while the U.S. government is fighting against trade barriers created by race-based policies, Amazon is imposing draconian racial restrictions on companies seeking to do business with it in South Africa.

Exclusion based on race is not diversity.

We therefore call on Amazon to remove race from its support programme. Racial exclusion is morally indefensible.

Dr Dirk Hermann, Chief Executive: Solidarity