RESTRUCTURING THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Conglomerates did not deliver their side of the postapartheid bargain
Private fixed investment flatlined in business-friendly climate but asset managers and BEE beneficiaries scored, writes Andrew McGregor and Nimrod Zalk
The unbundling and reconstitution of SA’s apartheid-era conglomerates since the early 1990s is arguably the biggest restructuring of the South African economy since the discovery of diamonds in the 1880s, but it has received only limited attention. Yet, as SA grapples with its fundamental challenges of unemployment, inequality and fracturing social cohesion, it is critical to reflect on how the bargains that gave rise to this restructuring were formed, their effect on economic structure and performance and the urgent need for a new set of pragmatic bargains. One question, in particular, needs to be posed: have postapartheid corporates contributed to higher levels of private sector fixed investment? In 1990, six corporate groups controlled 84% of the JSE: Anglo American, Rembrandt, Sanlam, SA Mutual, Liberty Life/Standard Bank and Anglovaal, with Anglo alone accounting for 44.2%. The roots of SA’s current corporate landscape were established over the early 1990s as the groups sought ...
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