BEE fails to reach target sector

A FIELD survey conducted by the SA Institute of Race Relations (IRR) revealed that only 16.6% of black respondents believe in the effectiveness of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies.

The surprising results are based on the views of 2 245 people who were interviewed in their language of choice by experienced field teams.

According to IRR policy head, Dr Anthea Jeffery, current empowerment policies benefit only a relatively small elite.

‘They offer nothing to poor people,’ said Jeffery.

‘The survey results show that few black respondents agree that affirmative action in employment has helped them personally.

‘By contrast, 83.3% of blacks disagree.

‘Only approximately one in ten people has benefited from BEE.

‘South Africa cannot hope to expand opportunities for the disadvantaged without much faster economic growth, millions of new jobs and schools that are effective in imparting essential knowledge and skills.’

Jeffery said current policies need to be replaced with ‘Economic Empowerment for the Disadvantaged’ or ‘EED’.

‘EED is a solution to the empowerment challenge that has been developed within the IRR to address the failure of current policies.

‘It is specifically focused on ensuring that empowerment policy attracts new investment, ensures job creation and reaches large numbers of poor and disadvantaged people.

‘By contrast, if current policies are retained, this will further reduce investment, growth and jobs, and bring about even more harmful political, social and economic consequences.

‘The current empowerment policies have so little popular support and have had such limited success that the Government has very little to fear – and very much to gain – from shifting to the EED alternative.’