The empowerment deal between Standard Bank and two leading black entrepreneurs was better than those of Sanlam and Absa earlier this year, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
Sanlam signed an empowerment deal with Patrice Motsepe, the chairperson of mining company ARMGold, valued at about R2-billion earlier.
There was a 10% transfer of ownership with no employee share ownership (ESO), DA finance spokesperson Raenette Taljaart said.
Banking group Absa entered into a R3-billion deal with Tokyo Sexwale, the founder of mining firm Mvelaphanda Holdings, with their getting a ”tiny one percent of share ownership”.
The Absa deal saw a 10% transfer of ownership to Sexwale and his handpicked partners, Taljaard said.
”Standard Bank’s deal is an improvement but BEE (black economic empowerment) is still not broad-based,” she said.
”Empowerment deals should result in the upliftment of a broad spectrum of South Africans — not the enrichment of a small group of men who are rapidly becoming South Africa’s newest oligarchs.”
Standard Bank and Liberty Group sold 10% stakes worth R5,4-billion to empowerment groups, staff and a community trust on Thursday last week.
Companies headed by Cyril Ramaphosa an Saki Macozoma were the main beneficiaries of the deal.
Taljaard said: ”On these grounds, the financial press has rightly lamented the disproportionate enrichment of multimillionaires Cyril Ramaphosa and Saki Macozoma in Standard Bank’s BEE deal…
”They haven’t, however, given credit to the bank for reserving 40% of the deal for employees,” she said.
Most previous BEE transactions ”have involved little, or no, employee share ownership components and the main beneficiaries of the deals are limited in number.
”Standard Bank’s deal encompasses a much broader base of beneficiaries than the [Sanlam and Absa] deals, but it is has weaknesses.
”The majority of the ESO component of the deal is reserved for black employees at management level. It would have been far more empowering if it was extended to all employees,” Taljaard said. – Sapa