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Solidarity believes that Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s latest defence of black economic empowerment (BEE) is once again completely removed from the reality of what BEE is and does. Parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU) should reject his statements on BEE.

In response to a parliamentary question about BEE, Mashatile denied that it is in any way discriminatory legislation and does not believe it is necessary to abandon it, even though the US government makes its removal a condition for a better trade agreement.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was criticised in a visit to the White House in May this year by President Donald Trump about the racial relations in the country, and South Africa’s long list of racial laws is also currently under attack from the USA.

Research by the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) already indicated that BEE reduces annual economic growth by approximately 3%.

“Conceding 3% economic growth every year has impoverished South Africa over the past 15 years, and we are rapidly falling behind the rest of the world in terms of development,” says Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher affiliated with the SRI.

A report released in May this year by the SRI and the Free Market Foundation (FMF) indicated that BEE policies currently led to losing 3,8 million job opportunities, of which approximately 3,2 million would have been filled by black South Africans.

According to Mashatile, this type of legislation is necessary, and South Africa must make even more efforts to rectify on past events by intensifying supposed transformation plans in the country.
Du Buisson says Mashatile is dishonest about the true objectives of transformation legislation.

“The deputy president says it is also about changing discriminatory laws from before 1994, which are apparently still in use. But how come we have more discriminatory racial laws today than in the 1980s?

“The ANC’s version of transformation is all about stripping white people of their economic interests to enrich ANC cadres,” says Du Buisson.

According to Du Buisson, it is time for the ANC to abandon its obsession with transformation after more than three decades of democracy and instead focus on transforming the failing economy into a workable one.

“South Africa already has the financial and physical infrastructure for people to empower themselves. Unfortunately, the current economic climate that the ANC has created makes it almost impossible for anyone to empower themselves,” says Du Buisson.

The ANC’s BEE policies hinder growth even further, making empowerment increasingly difficult.

Du Buisson says the ANC is responsible for the decline that is impoverishing the South African population, and through BEE policies, they are exacerbating it.

“When the ANC took over, South Africa was by far the richest country in Africa. That is no longer the case. The government must realise that you cannot divide an economy for growth. Only the private sector can make the economy grow, and they can only do that if unnecessary regulations, especially BEE and the new sectoral targets, do not complicate their task.”
 

Issued by Economic Researcher: Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) Spokesperson Theuns du Buisson