Death knell for BEE

SIR — It is common cause that the African National Congress-led government at all levels of governance is utterly incompetent and corrupt.

The announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry that it is going to take over the issuance of black economic empowerment (BEE) certificates (State set to take control of BEE verification, August 15) can lead only to the complete collapse of the system. Not only will the department’s involvement slow the process to a crawl, it will also create a very lucrative opportunity for the fraudulent issue of such certificates through bribery and other forms of corrupt practice.

The problem, as always, has not been thought through in any detail, with the usual knee-jerk reaction of believing that the state can do it better than the private sector. Making the department the sole provider of BEE certificates will most certainly not accelerate the creation of 100 “black industrialists” unless it chooses to do so fraudulently, as one would expect in such a distorted scenario.

It is ironic that the department is trying to prevent the private sector from issuing certificates “to itself” and will instead now make the rules on who qualifies and thereafter issue the relevant qualification as it sees fit.

BEE has not, will not and can never be a substitute for proper education, training and the natural development of inherent talent among the majority of the population, and the latest proposals amount to nothing more than seeking to window dress the situation to make it appear to be working. CS Powell Kloof