LEGISLATION
BEE: an enabler of state capture
Most businesses have colluded with the system that has failed to distinguish fronting or rent-seeking from real business, writes Jonathan Yudelowitz
The advocates of radical economic transformation fail to notice that, despite increasingly vigorous implementation of BEE, racial iniquities, economic exclusion and marginality are as entrenched as ever and that SA remains one of the world’s most unequal economies. Most businesses have colluded with the system that has failed to distinguish fronting or rent-seeking from real business, has corrupted society and damaged the reputation of black business people, while lifting goods and services costs. Critics of BEE are labelled reactionary racists or apologists for colonialism. Their concerns are dismissed and business is blackmailed into censoring insights that may foster growth and create jobs, but challenges the transformation orthodoxy. The system does not encourage integrity or commercial acumen. It has set BEE legislation up to be a key enabler of state capture. The looting of parastatals has violated governance and procurement policy and the Public Finance Management Act, but it...
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