TRANSFORMATION
Asian tigers earn SME stripes while SA policies make only fat cats purr
Black economic empowerment policies have enriched a minority and failed to create growth and value
SA’s black economic empowerment (BEE) model, which focuses on fostering black industrialists and has degenerated into making political capitalists with connections to the ANC leadership fabulously rich, is simply wrong. Such narrow BEE empowers only a handful of people, creates little value and has no multiplier effect on development, job creation or poverty reduction. It also makes it easy for BEE policy to be captured by corrupt elements for self-enrichment – as is the case now. The aim of BEE should be to change the structure of the economy, business and society. Enriching only a few well-connected sham business people will not do this. BEE should shift towards empowering as many black people as possible, create new products, services and technologies the country needs, foster new skills the economy needs and stimulate new kinds of industries. To make BEE genuinely broad-based, create real value and multiply its development effect, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should becom...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.