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/ 23 February 2007

The uneasy logic of black empowerment

Government strategy has created a tiny black elite! Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) favours rampant crony capitalism! BEE is just corporate trickle down to the black middle class! Black empowerment is no more broad-based than Jacob Zuma’s bank balance! Such complaints form the backdrop to much discussion about BEE, the left blaming neo-liberal capitalism, the right condemning ANC misrule.

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/ 20 November 2006

The limits of top-down development

Thabo Mbeki aspires to crafting a "developmental state" capable of directing the economy on to a path of innovation, sustainable growth, redistribution and poverty reduction. Adopted as a goal in part because the level of private investment has been disappointing, the aspiration is otherwise built on the ANC’s admiration for the East and South-East Asian economies, where rapid economic growth over the past three decades has been guided by activist states.