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The ubiquitous so-called construction mafias were spawned by the racial engineering of the ANC (“SA’s extortion mafias spread their tentacles to new sectors”, August 26). The ANC has an obsessive love for racial quotas and all forms of contract set-asides.
These distortive intrusions into government contracts have, unsurprisingly, inculcated a “free lunch” attitude among opportunistic and well-organised gangsters. How could we have expected otherwise?
If a good chunk of any government contract must go to local business, gangsters merely jump the gun and move in before the bickering ANC structures have decided which cadre gets the 30% or so benefit. And of course the gangsters draw little distinction between public and private contracts.
The ANC would shed bitter tears, but the way to start cauterising this cancer of extortion is to abandon the whole catastrophe of set-asides and racial preference. In other words, abandon BEE.
There would be an additional bonus: our strangled economy would finally be able to grow at its 5% potential.
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 Anonymous correspondence will not be published.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.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Cancer of extortion
The ubiquitous so-called construction mafias were spawned by the racial engineering of the ANC (“SA’s extortion mafias spread their tentacles to new sectors”, August 26). The ANC has an obsessive love for racial quotas and all forms of contract
set-asides.
These distortive intrusions into government contracts have, unsurprisingly, inculcated a “free lunch” attitude among opportunistic and well-organised gangsters. How could we have expected otherwise?
If a good chunk of any government contract must go to local business, gangsters merely jump the gun and move in before the bickering ANC structures have decided which cadre gets the 30% or so benefit. And of course the gangsters draw little distinction between public and private contracts.
The ANC would shed bitter tears, but the way to start cauterising this cancer of extortion is to abandon the whole catastrophe of set-asides and racial preference. In other words, abandon BEE.
There would be an additional bonus: our strangled economy would finally be able to grow at its 5% potential.
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.
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