HR Pulse

Black entrepreneurs to be given a helping hand

At the gala dinner of the Black Business Council (BBC) in Johannesburg last week, deputy president – Cyril Ramaphosa – stated that government aims to procure 75% of its goods and services from South African producers to create "a new class of black industrialists and entrepreneurs". This sounds very much like the new BEE codes, under which 25 points for preferential procurement can only be earned if the supplier is an 'empowering' supplier. Will Ramaphosa's plan enjoy any measure of success – unlike BEE?

In it's11-year history, more criticism than praise has been levelled at the BEE system. Some of the more outspoken critics have this to say:

• It's been said that this system is a 'reverse apartheid' system where previously disadvantaged individuals are given rights because of the atrocities that were levelled against their people under the apartheid government. (Never mind that these currently advantaged individuals were not even a 'twinkle in their parents' eyes during apartheid...)
• The next biggest criticism is that BEE advantages a small group of black people while the larger group of South Africans, who're on the breadline, still continue to suffer poverty and inequality. Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former state president Thabo Mbeki, is famously quoted as saying that BEE is "a device for white-dominated corporations to build bridges with the ANC elite... It doesn't create wealth or add value to the economy."

Since the early 90s, politicians have been struggling with how to achieve the greater aims of BEE, i.e. reducing poverty and inequality. With the staggeringly high unemployment rate, it is hoped that government will find a way – fast – to fix these problems. If they don't, we could find ourselves in a state of anarchy, with people stealing so that they can feed themselves and their children.

Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company.