S’tru, there will always be people who take unfair advantage of government policy. Call them opportunists, capitalists, what you will, but you can be sure they exist.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel took the unusual step this week of telling the Financial Times that South Africa’s black economic empowerment (BEE) programme needs an overhaul. It certainly got the paper’s attention, and it ran the story as a lead.
Perhaps the minister was trying to signal to the world that he really is serious about getting to grips with the problem of companies recruiting black managers and board members simply as token appointments.
“They [his white partners] say, ‘We want you there. You are a good man. But actually we do not need you close to what we do. We will run the business, but we have bought an insurance policy through you,'” Manuel told the paper.
A recent study of JSE-listed companies showed that of a total of 697 directors, 66% were white and only 28% were black.
While few would disagree that BEE has been a success in going some way to redressing the economic imbalance brought about by apartheid, it is now time to take a closer look at it. This might ruffle a few feathers, but the time is right to review a policy whose critics say are only benefiting the elite.
| FULL SPEED AHEAD |
NOT SO FAST |
Thabo Mbeki
Mbeki has been a busy man. He paid a flying visit to Sudan this week to check whether the country will agree to a United Nations support package for Darfur and, by Thursday, was lunching with France’s Jacques Chirac. He said he was ‘quite confident” negotiations to bolster the African Union force in Sudan would be resolved. Let’s hope he’s right. |
 Michael Nifong
North Carolina district attorney Nifong ‘rushed to accuse” three lacrosse players at Duke university of beating and gang-raping a woman. The men were cleared of all charges and it emerged that the woman’s story was simply untrue. Following a Bar investigation by the state Bar, he was charged with withholding evidence and lying to Bar investigators. He goes on trial in June. |
Most-read stories
April 5 to 11
1. ‘I was in a Zimbabwe death squad’
Working closely with the Central Intelligence Organisation’s directorate of counter-intelligence, Zanu-PF has been setting up secret death squads comprising members of the National Youth Service training programme.
2. Iranian newspapers gleeful over Britons’ release
Iranian newspapers wrote with glee on Thursday about the release of 15 British sailors and marines but some moderate dailies questioned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his handling of the issue.
3. US reveals its efforts to topple Mugabe
The United States admitted openly for the first time on Thursday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe.
4. Mugabe’s victims twice over
George B is not even sure of his own surname. It’s not written down anywhere that he knows of because in the eyes of the Zimbabwean state he does not exist.
5. Manuel calls for review of BEE
South Africa’s policy of black economic empowerment (BEE) is flawed and in need of review, the country’s finance minister said in an interview published on Tuesday.
6. Why Mbeki faces uphill struggle in Zimbabwe
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mission to resolve the crisis across the border in Zimbabwe faces slim prospects of success due to deep-rooted suspicion between the protagonists, analysts say.
7. Was Jesus the first socialist?
Was Jesus ‘the greatest socialist in history”, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez recently claimed?
8. Britons head for London, ending Iran stand-off
The 15 British military personnel who had been held by Iran flew out of Tehran for England on Thursday, ending a two-week stand-off that strained already tense relations between Iran and the West.
9. Who’s to pay R2,2m for Tambo funeral?
The African National Congress (ANC) “hijacked” the funeral of Adelaide Tambo, wife of former ANC president Oliver Tambo, and therefore should pay the funeral costs, an Ekurhuleni opposition councillor said on Tuesday.
10. Pressuring selectively
The man in the print shop where journalists were making copies of the latest judgement in the Jacob Zuma legal marathon, probably spoke for many middle-class South Africans when he asked why Zuma is so desperate to stop investigators getting access to those documents in Mauritius.