The BEE in SA's bonnet is slowing our growth

Business Letters: South Africa has the same population as South Korea, but only one-third of its GDP. Only 12 million of our 50 million people are employed and, of those, more than 35% work directly or indirectly for the government or quangos, 35% work in service industries.

Just 30% work in industries that create the production that pays for the other 70%.

There are about five million taxpayers and 14 million welfare recipients. The five million taxpayers, therefore, support from their taxes and after-tax earnings themselves and their families, as well as about 18 million people who are paid by the government. No wonder there is minimal saving and massive private-sector debt.

Despite the dismal statistics and the fact that we have corruption, inefficiency and looming infrastructure collapse, we continue to blow billions on the ego-building toys of the politicians, like soccer stadiums, statues and high-speed trains, instead of addressing the real needs of the country, which are efficient public services, industrial growth and employment.

All the sanctimonious pontification about "fronting" is somewhat frustrating in view of the fact that it is the nationally supported, approved method of starting businesses in South Africa. The aspirant business hires an investment bank, which then "sources" two or three well-connected members for the board. The going rate is about R20000 per monthly board meeting (whether present or not, as many of them are directors of more than 15 firms). This process makes the company "accredited" and ready to borrow from banks, to seek tenders and to "facilitate" projects.

This black-elite enrichment system has become the cornerstone of our economic policy, but the time must be running out for this means of leveraging positions and wealth as they are reducing the number of real entrepreneurs capable of starting competitive industrial undertakings and many industries face an uncertain future due to international competition.

How much longer will we hear that high levels of BEE are essential, when 90% of businesses were created by white or Indian males, who quite naturally continue to run them? Most of the public and private-sector workforce is black and "economically empowered" by their industrial wages, no matter who is managing the business.

In the meantime, the other unemployed 40% of the population living on the breadline suffer from the suppression of entrepreneurial activity due to labour and tax policies. When are we going to see BEE billionaires putting their money into factories and generating employment instead of playing financial games with shareholdings, investing in the Virgin Islands and buying palaces and Ferraris? - Nick Ashelford, Glen Anil

Fat cats have no sense of urgency

Your story "Share ownership not the BEE-all" (September 5) paints a very sad picture. BEE has been reduced to a numbers game to get the scorecard looking good. Individuals are getting deals that do not benefit the majority of the previously marginalised.

Transformation has been overtaken by the ownership of a few blacks who get the opportunity to be closer to the real action. As the article rightly points out, white males are still the aristocrats of the workplace - they rule the roost and the numbers seem to be getting worse, or better, depending on how you look at it.

Affirmative action has just become a token gesture by some big corporations. Even when it is law, people see it as just an inconvenience that needs to be circumvented. There is clearly no genuine need to transform by those in the driver's seat. It could take us another 50 years to get 30% black-owned companies listed on the JSE.

Government should make BEE a priority. Without government pressure, the workforce and control of capital will remain in the same hands, for eternity. Real transformation will never happen if left to previously disadvantaged individuals who are driven by crass materialism. - Kiekie Mboweni, Nkowankowa

ATM fees are laughable

The reason there are so many "unbanked" people in this country lies squarely on the shoulders of the banks and their greedy appetite for more fees.

There is no way a person earning a minimum wage can afford to have a bank account - the fees will most likely use most of their available money.

Unlike here, banks abroad understand that without customers they cannot operate, because it is the customer's deposits that they use to operate. If you told friends abroad that the banks here actually charge a fee for depositing and withdrawing cash, they would laugh. In the US, for example, basic savings accounts are free and you do not pay for any transactions, unless you use an ATM out of your bank's network.

Banks in South Africa must realise they need the customer more than the customer needs them. - Rick Crouch, Durban