As usual, white business is the first to benefit

Astudy by the Institute for Policy Studies in the US found that the wealth of some billionaires, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SA-born Elon

Musk, continues to rise despite uncertainty in the world economy. So there are winners in every situation. Locally, there are companies that are benefiting from the Covid-19 crisis, thanks to the way government spending has been redirected in response. But the sad truth is that most of those companies are white. Black business is at the back of the queue, as usual.

The R500bn stimulus package announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa is to be applauded as it shows decisive leadership. It was encouraging to hear the president emphasise that this capital injection should mark the beginning of re-engineering the economy to make it more inclusive. His words were echoed by finance minister Tito Mboweni a day later.

The concepts of an inclusive economy and inclusive growth have been elusive in SA since the advent of democracy. Black people, Africans in particular, still own minuscule portions of the economy. Many of us had high hopes 25 years ago that by this time the debate would be around acceptable percentages of black ownership, not still stuck on how to foster black participation in the economic mainstream.

Hence, it was not surprising, but extremely disturbing, to hear that black people are being excluded from meaningful participation in the economic opportunities presented by the pandemic. As usual, big business is calling the shots, with broad-based BEE a footnote at best. This is contrary to the spirit of the president’s speech and Mboweni’s sentiments.

News that the Black Business Council will now be part of the procurement committee panel responsible for sourcing goods and services in the fight against Covid-19 is welcome, but it is extremely concerning that it had to take an intervention from the department of health for black business to be “accommodated” on the panel.

How much of the emergency money that the government has spent so far, since the outbreak of Covid-19, has gone to black business, whose representation on the said panel appears to have been an afterthought, or a grudge purchase? It is crucial that an independent audit is conducted, when the storm has settled, into which companies benefited from those initial disbursements.

That audit should also show who is poised to benefit from the R20bn to be injected into the health budget.

It cannot be correct that every time public funds are injected into the economy, black business has to fight for space at the table. That audit should be extended to other sectors, and should include the R200bn loan guarantee scheme earmarked for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in partnership with the banks. That programme is too critical to be left to the whim of credit committees within the banks — black business would again be at the back of the queue.

When the government has been bold to prioritise transformation, white lobby groups have mounted a strong pushback. A case in point is tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane’s resolve to make majority black ownership a criterion to access the R200m relief programme for the sector. She has been taken to court by the usual suspects. The programme is now suspended, and potential beneficiaries are made to wait longer. Some might have crashed by the time help arrives.

The same is happening to the minister of small business development, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who is being pressured to retreat from her insistence that majority black ownership be part of the criteria for both the growth and debt relief funds for SMEs. The two ministers should be strongly supported by black business and the black community in general. We should ensure that they are protected and shielded from the circling vultures.

I hear some saying: “There we go again on a race card in the middle of a pandemic.” I never thought transformation was a stop-start process but a continuum until we get closer to the desired state.

It is crucial that an audit is conducted into which companies benefited