New body to expedite empowerment

THE government is banking on the recently appointed Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Council to speed up implementation of its affirmative action policy. The government’s economic transformation programme has been blamed for alienating the white community, while creating new social inequalities, especially among its intended beneficiaries.

The 19-member body, which is chaired by President Jacob Zuma , was officially launched yesterday. “We want it to give advice that will lead to action,” said Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies . With its members appointed by the president, the council is a statutory body created in terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. It replaces a black business working group that advised former president Thabo Mbeki. “The sense that we all have is that progress of BEE to date has been modest,” Davies said. He said there was a need to review the codes of good practice “to see what is wrong with them, if anything”. There was a need to conduct research on the effect of black economic empowerment to date, and also on big deals concluded so far. Standing in for Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said the government could no longer tolerate the current status of BEE, which in the past 15 years had benefited a handful of individuals. “Only a few benefited again and again from the bounty of black economic empowerment,” he said. The “truly marginalised” — women, the rural poor, workers and the unemployed — were left on the sidelines.

It was important to look at BBBEE beyond business deals and shareholding in companies, to include equipping people to run their own businesses. “More must be enrolled in skills training and more should have access to arable land.” The BBBEE council includes Congress of South African Trade Unions president S’dumo Dlamini, Business Unity of SA CEO Jerry Vilakazi, and businessmen Sandile Zungu and Don Mkhwanazi. Other government officials were Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana , and Minister of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya.

The council would meet at least four times a year in plenaries. But it was expected that the bulk of the work would take place through subcommittees to be established when it convened within six weeks . Motlanthe said it was wrong to think that the government did not want black people to be wealthy, just as it was unwise to dismiss critics of black economic empowerment. “The critics must accept that the exclusion of a large section of our community from productive participation in the economic life of our society is a significant hindrance to our collective prosperity.”

Source: Business Day