LETTER: BEE and quotas defeat their purpose

The president has written to the nation since his state of the nation address to say that we need a developmental state and a vibrant business sector. Fine. But then he spells out that BEE and employment equity  targets  are inherent in the developmental state. This is tragically misdirected.

The brutal truth is that as long as we have state-mandated demographic targets we will have gatekeepers filling positions with their political supporters. The consequence we must now face is that this process excludes many competent but not politically influential black people. These sidelined black candidates would prevail in a competitive environment, but this route is closed to them. They cannot pass through the gatekeepers.

As long as employment is racially targeted and politicised, black candidates are at a disadvantage as competence is not the criterion that it is for candidates of other races. Black candidates would owe their jobs to the ANC, not to their inherent ability. The tragic outcome is that disillusioned black job-seekers are  emigrating to countries that do employ on merit.

Empowerment quotas thus defeat their purpose, which is surely to create an equal and nonracial economy in SA.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.​