The problem with BEE

DEAR SIR — Mark Barnes’s term “transfer of wealth” is the most appropriate description of what has unfolded under the pretext of black economic empowerment (BEE).

The literal meaning of empowerment is inducing power in those you empower. Economic empowerment therefore is inducing power for effective and sustainable economic participation. BEE should be about building capacity in black people to participate effectively in the economy, its growth and sustenance — not for them to be recipients of transferred wealth.

The starting point for true empowerment is education — which brings about a broad understanding of people’s environment, of who they are, of their culture, of their genuine history.

The basic product sold by all economically successful peoples is their culture. Even artificial peoples such as Americans laid their economic foundation from their artificial culture.

Tourism, the industry, prospers on people’s curiosity about other people’s cultures and the thrill of other people’s food, history and art. Analytical skills enable talented individuals to identify needs in society, on the basis of which they create products or services to cater for such needs, thereby eking out a living. Becoming a professional through education endows you with skills others are prepared to pay for.

The biggest drawback to BEE is the attitude of African people to each other — how they to bring down each other within the BEE companies is least reported. There are those who feel they are more entitled to the wealth transfer than others. On the other hand, they are loath to reward those who have spent energy digging out and making sure the wealth transfer happens. It is this attitude that has resulted in the gross distortion of BEE benefits in favour of a few politically powerful individuals.

Wealth transfer (current BEE) could perhaps have succeeded in empowering if the basis of allocation was to improve the balance sheet of entities actively involved in business. This could have been done on a one deal, one entity principle. In other words, once an entity has received a BEE wealth transfer then it should not receive another, but use what it already has to grow its business. Also, if there had been alignment, such as a wellresourced white company merged with a small well-managed black company doing the same business.

Also, African professionals on paper would depend on an African clientele, but alas the white professionals are the very ones the Africans trust. They will shout in the media when a snub affects them directly but when they have to engage a lawyer they will engage a white lawyer. Where circumstances force them to engage African professionals it becomes very difficult to pay. This is well illustrated by the difficulty Africans service providers have in getting paid by the government.

African professionals have no conscience about delivering sloppy work to their fellow Africans, and expect them to bite the bullet.

Dr Kenosi Mosalakae

Houghton