For two decades, supporters of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) have insisted that race-based measures are needed to overcome the effects of apartheid – but the facts show that BEE has failed.
The final committee debate on the Public Procurement Bill (PPB) before it was passed by the National Assembly was exceptionally heated. Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana correctly said ‘everybody here is canvassing’ in anticipation of next year’s national election, which distracts from the crucial new law.
So-called ‘black economic empowerment’ (BEE) is a misnomer in all respects. It is not about black people in general, but rather about a small black elite, it is profoundly uneconomic, and it is not about empowerment, but rather rentseeking. This is why the Institute of Race Relations, South Africa’s oldest, most consistent voice of non-racialism, has rightly taken to calling it ‘blatant elite enrichment’.
Is there anything one can say about BEE that hasn’t already been said? Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma seems to think so when he writes: “We should not shy away from rethinking BEE”, and I agree.