Reg Rumney

Ownership targets still trump other aspects of transformation, which could remove the advantages for small business.

It was unfortunate that BEE was seen as a matter of compliance rather than as a strategic issue, and the
compliance mindset needs to change.

BEE charters and the broad-based BEE codes of good practice might move corporate social investment (CSI) into the boardroom as a serious subject of discussion. The codes represent a kind of supercharter, with which all charters will have to be "aligned". Industries and businesses are scored according to a balanced scorecard with seven elements, of which socio-economic development or CSI is one.

Our northern neighbour is in the process of passing an "empowerment Bill" to force transfer of the majority stake in private companies to black Zimbabweans. Though this is indigenisation rather than empowerment in the South African sense, it raises interesting parallels with South Africa’s draft Mining Charter, which led to the outflow of billions of rand in foreign investment.

National Empowerment Fund chief executive Philisiwe Buthelezi has described the fund’s offer of discounted shares in MTN as "unique, exciting and historic". There have been other retail offerings reserved exclusively for black people over the years, most recently Telkom’s Khulisa scheme.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Unless it comes from the Greeks who have been besieging your citadel of Troy. As they say, <i>Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes</i> (beware of Greeks bearing gifts). I mention this because, as a professional sceptic, I am duty-bound to look at the downside of even the worthiest corporate schemes, writes Reg Rumney.

It amuses me that we commentators, analysts and consultants pore over the Broad-Based BEE Codes like technicians studying the manual of a motor vehicle to see how best to make it go. Then along comes a saga like the Holcim empowerment deal to remind us how profoundly political BEE is. Whatever codes and charters say, BEE is not a mere technical matter

Ralph Hamann, senior researcher at the University of Cape Town’s environmental evaluation unit, takes a broader view of corporate social responsibility, bringing in international trends. He sketches a number of new issues. “The international investment community is really developing a lot of steam on sustainability issues, especially climate change.

What lies ahead this year in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which concerns business and its role in society, and corporate social investment (CSI), which refers to the grant-making or corporate giving aspect of CSR? BEE will at once make both CSR and CSI more problematic, but also present new opportunities, this year as the BEE Codes of Good Practice start to filter through business.

Can it be that black economic empowerment (BEE), coupled with affirmative action, is retarding African entrepreneurship — and ironically spurring white people to take the plunge into running their own businesses? Let’s be clear that entrepreneurship here entails innovation and risk-taking and contributes to economic development rather than being simply the art of spotting a gap, writes Reg Rumney.

Sasol’s black economic empowerment deal, announced in June, marks the end of a phase in the Liquid Fuels Charter. All the major oil firms are "empowered" in the sense of having structured financial transactions that should see black people owning 25% of the liquid fuels industry by 2010.

When the De Beers black economic empowerment deal was announced last year, Cheryl Carolus could be described as not being "one of the usual suspects". Not now. In a short time Carolus, former ambassador to London and darling of those nostalgic for the optimistic non-racialism of the United Democratic Front, has become a firm BEE favourite.