WATCH: There’s an economic reason to relax BEE laws, but it also works for ANC – analyst

Until the paradox of “rich Africa, poor Africans” is resolved, there will be “more, not less” broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE), says Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Speaking at the “B-BBEE engagement day” as part of the Sustainability Summit Africa hosted by Deloitte South Africa, she said the “relatively peaceful” transition to democracy “is generally lauded as a major victory in the struggle for racial equality and an exemplary post-conflict transition towards a disaggregated society”.

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“A less talked-about side is that behind the political concessions and reforms, the economically dominant group held on to almost all social, cultural, economic power as political and administrative power underwent the transition.

“Those of economic power not only entrenched black subordination but also legitimised and normalised it.

“So even though we were in South Africa, we were never taken across the Atlantic as slaves, but I would dare to say we were enslaved right here in our country.”

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Dlamini-Zuma said even education was once used as a weapon for apartheid to exploit black people and this history should give people an understanding of why B-BBEE should still matter.

“This calls for more and not less black economic empowerment,” she said.

BEE’s mixed success

Political economy analyst Daniel Silke said B-BBEE had mixed success.

According to Silke, it had certainly levelled the playing fields across certain industries by creating additional opportunities for black South Africans.

But the application of BEE had also alienated minorities within SA and was the cause of substantial concern among certain minority groups in terms of their difficulty in getting employment.

“This leads to dissatisfaction with the governing party,” he said.

Silke said it had been 29 years of democracy since 1994 and it was time to look at a softening of BEE.

“Given the need to consolidate skills in SA – to stop the drain of skills leaving SA and to allow a much fairer competition domestically within SA for the job market,” he said.

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“After this amount of time, it really shouldn’t be necessary to tighten the screws of BEE. We need to mature and look at a much more flexible employment policy or employment regime going forward.”

Silke said next year the country was not likely to see any change of that sort take place. He said the ANC would continue to talk about the importance of BEE as it was an important election issue for the ANC.

“Politically, there is little chance but economically there’s a good reason for us to relax BEE requirements,” Silke said.

“But from the ANC’s point of view, politically BEE is still an important part of the ANC’s transformation policies and plays well to the majority of ANC voters.

“BEE is going to continue to be more important for the ANC than the potential economic downside of continuing with fairly rigid BEE.”

However, Business Unity SA president Bonang Mohale said it was important to accept that as a country and people with “great natural endowment”, there had not been success in eradicating the legacy of apartheid.

“That is why, 29 years into democracy, poverty still is primarily a black and feminine thing,” he said.

“Sadly, if wealth was the inevitable outcome of both hard work and enterprise, then every woman in Africa should be a dollar billionaire. So why are they not?”

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Mohale added that the fact that there was still R16 billion of historical debt among students in 26 public universities and 100 000 of them had completed their studies, but had not been able to graduate because of this, meant young people did not have a fighting chance to enter the economic mainstream.

“That’s why the transformative instruments like triple BEE and unemployment equity must be pursued with vigour and enthusiasm because it’s manifesting in our interests, that this economy is broadly reflective of the demographics,” he said.

– lungas@citizen.co.za