There are a number of disturbing trends currently sweeping through the black economic empowerment (BEE) landscape. One is the intransigence of white capital. The other is what company directors would call dereliction of duty by both the government and the private sector.
First, the intransigence of white capital. The Department of Health has set in motion the process of drafting an empowerment charter for the health care sector. The draft charter has been criticised for setting unrealistic targets and allowing insufficient time for consultation. These are both valid points, but they distract from a broader one.
In the five years since the first charter was launched in the liquid fuels industry, what have bodies such as the Private Health Forum and Board of Healthcare Funders done about empowerment? What informal engagement have they had around the various facets of empowerment? To complain about insufficient time and high targets is to emphasise the myopic tendency to protect vested industry interests and do little else. You knew this wave was coming, what did you do to prepare for it?
Also, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is currently in the process of formulating the empowerment codes of good practice. That process, if we are lucky, will be finished at the end of next year. Now the Department of Communications tells us that the ICT charter will only be finalised after the codes have been finalised. It is not clear why the charter needs to wait for the codes.
The DTI should make it clear that the drafting of empowerment codes should not be allowed to delay charter drafting. Otherwise, empowerment will drift to the periphery and allow intransigence to persist.