LETTER: BEE benefited the well-connected few

Greg Becker’s article refers (“Is BEE effective social justice?”, January 13).

I recall expressing my astonishment in the 1990s when it became clear that big business was simply and transparently buying off a few well-connected black “champions” with huge gifts of share options in the vein of “throw the dog a bone to keep it quiet” — and getting away with it.

I expected more of the women-and-children-fund type of set-ups, but ANC voters were clearly content with seeing a few newly minted black “celebs” in helicopters, rather than being concerned about their own welfare.

Egregiously, the likes of Mzi Khumalo, Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale scored, in return for nothing but their connections, hundreds of millions of rand, instead of hundreds of households scoring a R1m each, or millions scoring hundreds to give them a hand-up.

Then came Jacob Zuma and “our turn to eat” got a second, more vicious spin in the “broad-based” BEE tenderpreneur racket — black faces import the widgets from China and government pays enormous markups. Now only scraps remain.

The intentions of BEE were noble, and it could have helped had it been effectively and fairly applied. Alas.

MT Wessels
Via BusinessLIVE

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