BBBEE Council must be open and democratic - DA
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the commitment by the recently appointed Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Council to reassess affirmative action policy. This venture, however, will only prove successful if the research and discussions by the Council are open to public scrutiny. If this is not the case it risks being turned into a politburo that merely endorses the current system of extended ANC cronyism.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe admitted at yesterday's inauguration of the Council (see here), that Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has failed - not a surprising revelation to anyone, but still significant in showing the way forward.
With the new Council replacing an advisory board created under the Mbeki office and serving as an advisory board to the President on Black Economic Empowerment the means and ends of BBBEE must now be interrogated.
BBBEE must add value to companies in order for it to be sustainable at all. This was made clear in the wake of the economic downturn when many empowerment deals came undone by the inability of the BEE-partner to service the debt taken on to finance the deal in the first place. A roll-out of share offers to a broad base of individual buyers is far superior in this regard, and should be incentivised. This would guard against the prevalent situation of limiting BEE-deals to a select few, often situated within the ANC elite.
The DA believes that BBBEE is a crucial and essential requirement to furthering the aims of democracy and entrenching a culture of broad economic participation. It is a shame that it has been subverted for so long in order to pander to a few political heavyweights within the ANC. The DA will be posing specific recommendations on BBBEE policy to the Council for their consideration.
Statement issued by Kobus Marais, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of trade and industry, February 5 2010
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Comments
Even the DA has it wrong here BEE will only lead to the weakening of the South African economy and the poor will get poorer and also the rich. there is only one legitimate way of spreading wealth and that is through EEE (Education, Education and . .more
by Koos on February 08 2010, 08:30
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sounds like a bureaucratic monster. Please...
by Klaus in RSA on February 09 2010, 00:53
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