Ideology gambles with South Africa’s future
The department of trade and industry is of cardinal importance for the country’s welfare as it manages the country’s domestic and foreign affairs and for this reason the country cannot allow the implementation of poor policies, says adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson for trade and industry.
Today, with the department of trade and industry’s budget vote debate, adv. Alberts said that the country cannot afford to gamble with its people’s welfare for the sake of ideological convictions.
“We need to implement whatever works. Today, I want to focus on one specific policy that is doing great damage to the country, namely Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). The fixation with BEE and the creation of a handful of black industrialists is putting off foreign investors. During the downgrade, the credit rating agencies declared that one of the reasons for the downgrade is BEE, especially seen in the light of radical economic transformation.
“The reality is that BEE is not working because it does not have a broad basis of empowerment. It enriches a few, while criminalising white people.
“One example is the Public Protector (PP) investigating the legality of the empowerment deal that relates to a black consortium’s acquisition and sale of Capitec shares to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF).