LUCKY MATHEBULA

In response to questions in parliament, President Cyril Ramaphosa once again highlighted Black Economic Empowerment. This response has placed South African politics and, arguably, national interests at the forefront, particularly regarding foreign direct investment and the necessity for a national consensus on the injustices of the past, as recognised by the constitutional order in its preamble. The time has come to list and clinically isolate the templates of economic and social domination for public policy attention.

The need for immediate action underscores the urgency of economic transformation. If there is a transformation benefit or gain from the “Make Apartheid Great Again” movement that appended itself to the nuanced elements of racial discrimination within the “Make America Great Again” movement, it is that it put the economic transformation path of South Africa on the table for forensic analysis.

BEE results from the broader national economic transformation effort aimed at addressing the structural economic imbalances created by apartheid. It facilitates full black participation in the economy. Consequently, the B-BBEE Act 53 of 2003, a key legislative document in this process, has dominated public discourse on economic transformation. This condition may have caused other dimensions of economic transformation to lag.

In a world of unexpected and radical changes, democracies like ours will need to widen or diversify the lenses through which we execute economic transformation pathways.

To date, BEE has been more about the interests and behaviour of the “power holders”, the empowering agents and the empowerment beneficiaries. Little to no attention has been paid to BEE as a theoretical concept in respect of what it is, if it has a thesis, what its epistemology is and whether it can develop into a theory of doing business that does not come across as a strange act and thus a grudge or compliance activity. BEE, as an economic transformation construct, should condition the possibility of its overall objectives.

Suppose the transfer of political power to the people is marked by the universal and non-racial enfranchisement of We the People. In that case, the outstanding transfer of economic power to the people is an area that requires attention to shift the frontiers of inequality and put in their stead an equitable economic system that would undergird the social and economic justice intents of the constitution.

In a developing economy, the state is expected to respect, promote, protect and fulfil the economic justice promises that the constitutional and democratic order makes to its citizens. This means if the economy is designed to be a tool of social domination, the state should, through means that include BBB-EE, intervene. In its 22nd year, the impact of BBB-EE is now reaching levels where genuine commitment to the policy must be demonstrated.

The changes in how we work as a society have changed the reliance of economies on human beings, and the AI-driven industrial revolution is redefining the compliance architecture in countries that are left behind. The turbulence caused by the borderless demands of the ICT industry, production surpluses of larger economies and the sheer consumer choices facilitated by direct commodity producer-to-customer relationships have created cyber communities that few governments can govern.

As a country, our past experiences and solutions we put in place may be a poor guide on how to navigate emerging economic challenges. Our embedded assumptions, which may be outdated and irrelevant in the current context of facilitating economic growth, may need revision. The unfolding geopolitical and economic battles for hegemony will compel developing economies in the coming decade to develop a deeper understanding of how to meet their growing needs and wants while safeguarding their fragile national sovereignty, particularly their ability to provide a home for future generations.

BBB-EE as a single lens to address the entirety of economic transformation might keep us on a narrow focus lane. In a world of unexpected and radical changes, democracies like ours will need to widen or diversify the lenses through which we execute economic transformation pathways. The skills and technology demands may dictate an overhaul of the legislative and regulatory framework to be agile enough for the decision turnaround times necessitated by the business in the realities of global trade, where decisions must be made at the speed of thought.

Given that the economy has not been growing at a rate that matches population growth, tensions between those who have benefited from the apartheid economy and those who the post-1994 economic order must include, or mainstream, are rising. The binaries of black and white, which have otherwise watermarked the South African economy and still represent vectors of economic transformation belief systems, are again becoming the primary source of political and social strife.

Throughout history, the most effective way to transform an economy has been to grow it at a rate or speed twice or more than that of population growth. Economies grow through the generation of structural change. In South Africa, and among economic reform activists, there is consensus that the ICT and financial services sectors, with their potential for growth and innovation, have surpassed land ownership as a template of economic domination or exclusion that must be fractured.

C-suites and business owners in the private sector, in whom the economic authority of the republic vests, are most likely to be affected (by the template fracturing) because of the immense power they wield and the relatively little accountability that has been imposed on how they exercise the economic power they have. As South Africa appears to have found the reset button for a return to greatness, it is a moment where the private sector must act to ensure accountability and slow the growing discontent with the prevailing order.

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