South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, speaking during the current South African-Italian Business Forum, said that he would not like foreigners to fear black economic empowerment (BEE), but rather that they understand the economic imperative underlying it.
“I always wish BEE can be properly understood by foreign investors — we wouldn’t like them to fear it. It is an economic imperative to sustain this democracy — which has started so well — and we must ensure its benefits are shared by all the people, and also that we grow participation,” said Mpahlwa.
“It’s a difficult thing to do — something that doesn’t have many examples, [just] look at around the world. We are faced with a stark reality where a big chunk of our population cannot participate, so we have devised a means to ensure they can participate,” he explained.
“We try to do it in a manner based on market principles and mechanisms that will not create undue distortions,” he added.
Mpahlwa emphasised that empowerment has to be broad-based — “it must be about giving people skills and investing in people”.
“We believe this is something successful companies do as a matter of course. We would like them to do this and pay attention to those who were historically disadvantaged,” he said.
“We would like companies to begin to reflect on who South Africa is. These are things not out of the ordinary of what companies do,” he pointed out.
Mpahlwa indicated that South Africa’s BEE framework was there to assist companies that lacked clarity around broad-based empowerment.
“I want to allay any fears that may be there,” he concluded.
Senior government officials and more than 120 businesspeople from Italy are in South Africa to develop ties and boost business-to-business partnerships. — I-Net Bridge