BBE repurposed for self-enrichment
MORE than two decades ago the South African government put in place a policy designed to redress racial imbalances in the country’s economy. But the policy – broad-based black economic empowerment – has been hijacked and repurposed by individuals and factions in the governing ANC for corruption and self-enrichment.
This was particularly noticeable during the Covid pandemic. The government’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found that corruption or fraud accounted for 66% of all national funding set aside for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE).
I argue that the empowerment policy has been corrupted by officials appointed by the ANC and has been used to perpetrate economic crime – and repurposed for self-enrichment.
The repurposed policy benefits only a tiny group, amid widespread unemployment, economic stagnation and poverty.
The original intention of the B-BBEE policy was to transform the economy by enhancing the participation of black people and erase systemic racist inequities. The initiative was wide-ranging – employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement and enterprise development.
It was meant to address issues that affected most black people – unemployment, economic stagnation and poverty – not just the elites.
But its repurposing has benefited a small elite, who, with few exceptions, escaped accountability. Predictably, very few have been charged with Covid tender corruption. And those exposing corrupt practices are in severe danger: a shocking example was the assassination of Babita Deokaran, a provincial health department whistleblower for the SIU looking into a multimillion rand PPE scandal.
Stanley Cohen, a world expert on crimes committed by the state, suggests crimes committed by the rich and powerful are rarely prosecuted.
Vested interests in the South African government used the Covid-19 pandemic as a form of disaster capitalism, a term coined by the Canadian social and political activist Naomi Klein. She explains: “(Once a crisis) has struck … it was crucial to act swiftly, to impose rapid, irreversible change before the crisis-racked society slipped back into the ‘tyranny of the status quo’.”
In the case of Covid-19 in South Africa, the authoritarian measures used in the hard lockdown provided conditions for people to more easily divert contracts to patronage networks.
An added factor enabling the repurposing of B-BBEE has been the ANC’s cadre-based deployment. This involves the government appointing governing party members to government positions irrespective of their competence.
This has led to the creation of vast patronage networks within the ANC.
As political analyst Ralph Mathekga suggests in his book The ANC’s Last Decade, decisions (were) made to serve the patronage networks flowing through the ANC to benefit the interests of an elite group of party officials and businessmen.
The crux of my argument is that B-BBEE has become a disguise to hoodwink the public and to enrich a few people while masquerading as a vehicle for mass empowerment.
This same criminal modus operandi was employed during the Covid pandemic. In particular, the supply and distribution of the vaccine and PPE. Contracts were awarded solely on the criterion of being aligned to the ANC. Merit didn’t matter.