The government’s fervent refusal to allow "once empowered, always empowered" is working greatly to the disadvantage of those it is seeking to empower, as the experience of Sasol Inzalo and Sasol shareholders shows.Mining companies are seeking a court ruling to allow them to retain permanently the empowerment credits they earned on past deals in which beneficiaries have sold out. The government wants mining firms — and all other firms — to keep topping up their black equity ownership levels to the minimum levels in industry charters and the BEE codes. The result is that companies put in place 10-year lock-in structures, such as Inzalo. Measured from the outset of Inzalo in 2008 until the present, Sasol’s shares have barely moved. But in 2014, when oil prices peaked, Sasol’s shares hit R652.99. If they had been allowed, perhaps some Inzalo shareholders would have sold shares at that point to repay debt and make a profit. That opportunity would also have relieved the rest of the shareh...
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