Recently, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has come under scrutiny, with the DA releasing a statement calling for its scrapping, but it’s not the first time such a programme has been implemented in South Africa.
Experts agree that the apartheid government implemented a programme not dissimilar to BEE but designed to empower Afrikaners.
Dr Adri du Plessis, senior lecturer in the University of the Free State department of public law, said the National Party, which won the 1948 elections, did not only implement its system of racial segregation but also programmes of economic empowerment for Afrikaners.
“It implemented a full complement of policies, programmes, and legislation, for example, job reservation, especially in the public sector – in government and state-owned enterprises.
‘Other methods of empowerment included access to quality education, creating a vastly unequal education system, and providing access to finance through financial institutions such as Volkskas [bank],” she said.
Access to land and unequal service delivery were other examples of this empowerment.
She said: “Afrikaner empowerment was exclusionary, systematic and a legislative-backed process aimed at dispossessing the majority of the population, advancing a small minority and maintaining dominance.
“BEE is an affirmative or remedial, distributive policy and programme based on inclusivity and incentivising increased Black participation in the economy.
“It is founded in the Constitution and bound by the framework of a constitutional democracy based on human dignity, equality and freedom. Its aims are to remedy the severe inequalities and imbalances.”
BEE has resulted in some increases in participation in the economy, but the objective of grassroots upliftment has not materialised, he said.
Reasons for this are varied, and there are some differences of opinion as to the causes.
“However, a few could be highlighted. First, unlike Afrikaner empowerment, BEE is designed to operate as part of an economic expansion and growth strategy. The environment it is situated in is a globalised and competitive marketplace.
“Due to various reasons, economic growth in South Africa has been far from what is desired but also far from what would be required for a programme designed to be part of a growth strategy.
“Linked to this stagnant economic growth is the issue of job creation and unemployment. Job creation would be an indirect benefit of BEE, but it would be a very effective way to reverse … inequality that persists.
“The principle of increasing levels of employment for disadvantaged groups as a means of lifting communities out of poverty should be a priority.
“Narrow-based, politically connected empowerment together with the creation of a class of tenderpreneurs without any meaningful knowledge or skills transfer are other issues that detract from BEE’s success. Last, but not least, corruption casts a long shadow over the BEE programme.”
Researcher and former Institute of Economic Justice board member Pali Lehohla agreed that BEE and Afrikaner empowerment under apartheid are similar in intended outcomes.
“However, in the hardwired structures of the real world of implementation, they are worlds apart. Just take the creation of Old Mutual by the English and the counter by the Afrikaners, Sanlam.
“The Afrikaners did not ask to be included; they went and built their own house. BEE is asking for inclusion. The Afrikaners knew how to use state power and abuse it to their advantage.”
Political analyst Levy Ndou said South Africans have an expectation that they will benefit from democracy. “And it is correct that they should benefit; otherwise, what is the point?
The problem is that those who benefited from the empowerment under apartheid do not want others to benefit.
“I do not believe that BEE has been unsuccessful. Those who say it is must tell us how to quantify that. BEE as a capital system is not supposed to make everyone millionaires.”
He said putting caps on BEE benefits is a red herring because the benefit accrued from apartheid cannot be capped.
“How do you prevent someone from using the superior education they were empowered with by apartheid to advance themselves over and over?”
He said one could not expect the beneficiaries of that to give up their benefit. “Yet we all know one should not be allowed to benefit from an injustice, but how can that be effected?”
He said BEE was yielding results and had to continue. The DA had not responded to the invitation for comment at the time of publication.
