The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill passed by the National Assembly in Cape Town today makes it an offense for entities to misrepresent their empowerment status, which the government takes into account when awarding contracts or licenses.
The laws are designed to encourage companies to hire and promote more black staff and procure more goods and services from black-owned companies to address racial inequalities that stem from apartheid rule, which ended in 1994.
“There is a significant challenge of fronting in the economy,” Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told reporters in Cape Town on Thursday. “You put somebody in some position so that you can pretend that the enterprise is something other than what it is in terms of being black-empowered. It is a form of fraud that needs to be stamped out."
The amendment bill also provides for the establishment of a new commission to oversee compliance with empowerment laws and investigate complaints about violations.
White South Africans account for just 9% of the population yet control more than 90% of the value of shares on the Johannesburg stock exchange, according to government data. Whites occupied 73% of top business management posts, the Employment Equity Commission said in an April 20 report.
“Black empowerment remains a necessary political and social imperative,” Davies said. “There is a requirement that we redress the disadvantage that people had in the past.” – Bloomberg