It’s not BEE holding SA economy back, it’s exclusive ownership, says Ramaphosa

“Why can’t black people be made to own productive aspects of work? Why can’t they be rich as well?” President Cyril Ramaphosa asked MPs in the House on Tuesday.

They were questions posed by the President in a lengthy response to a question from Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) leader and MP Dr Corné Mulder, who asked, during a Q&A session in Parliament, whether Ramaphosa was prepared to develop an economic policy “that can make possible, real economic growth” in South Africa.

This “real, new economic policy”, as far as Mulder was concerned, needs to take a different approach with regard to “certain basic things” that he suggested Ramaphosa wasn’t prepared to do.

Mulder said these “certain basic things” related to black economic empowerment (BEE), employment equity, affirmative action and the Expropriation Act. (The FF Plus, a partner in SA’s 10-party broad coalition government, is strongly opposed to the aforementioned policies.)

“Are you prepared to do that?” Mulder asked Ramaphosa.

Read more: Government models 3.5% growth by 2029 as it launches 30 key reforms — here they are

The President delivered nothing short of a sharp klap in response, saying at several points in his speech that he was “baffled by people who still hanker [for] policies of the past.

“I’m rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of black economic empowerment militate against the growth of our economy. That I find quite surprising, because I work from the starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past. Those racist policies prevented all South Africans — or the majority of South Africans — [from playing] a meaningful role in the economy of their own country.

“Black people were brought in [as] hewers of wood and drawers of water. They were brought in as labourers, they were not even seen as consumers. They were not seen as active players in the economic landscape of our country.

“With democracy, what has now been happening and what we seek to see happening is the opening up of the economy; the broadening up of economic participation, which if you observe, Honourable Dr Mulder, you will actually see, and it’s right in your face,” said Ramaphosa.

Read more: BEE on borrowed time — why attacks on SA’s social engineering project won’t abate this time

Ramaphosa’s response was delivered with a particular intensity, possibly as a result of the current spotlight on South Africa’s employment equity policies on the back of a new policy directive issued by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, which is looking at relaxing the regulations around BEE ownership for satellite internet service providers.

The move is seen as potentially paving the way for Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by the tech billionaire and de facto head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, to operate in SA without ceding ownership. Race-based redress in its various forms in SA has been the subject of attacks from Musk and US President Donald Trump for months.

Ramaphosa’s statements also follow the DA’s challenge to Section 15A of the Employment Equity Amendment Act heard in the Gauteng Division of the High Court earlier this month.

Despite years of empowerment policies, deeply entrenched structural inequalities remain stubbornly resistant, which critics have pointed to as signs that the policies have failed to address the challenge of redress, Daily Maverick has reported. Critics claim BEE has enabled corruption and State Capture, with the DA’s Helen Zille equating redress with State Capture.

Ramaphosa said the Government of National Unity would spend “a considerable amount of hours” in the days to come discussing the economic strategy and trajectory that South Africa should pursue.

He continued: “Our ambition, Honourable Dr Mulder, is to make sure that our economy grows [more] than what the projections are currently.

“Our objective is to spread economic participation broadly, and I will hold on to the argument that the more we have previously disadvantaged people playing a role in the economy of their own country, the better it is.”

‘Concentration of ownership’

Ramaphosa referred to reports by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which, he said, found that among the factors restricting South Africa’s economic growth was the level of market and capital ownership concentration.

“Concentration because, they said, the ownership of the economy is in far too few hands — ownership has not spread.

“Now, I find it very worrying that we continue to have this notion that BEE is the one that’s holding our economy back. It is the partial and exclusive ownership of the means of production in our country that is holding this economy [back] from growing,” said Ramaphosa.

“If we accept that the ownership of our economy is imbalanced, the clause on equality in our Constitution seeks to undo that; to redress that. So, therefore, ownership of our economy should be broadened.

“And I can tell you, Dr Mulder, there’s nothing that gives our people [as much] joy — particularly black people — as they go around and they find that this production facility’s owned by a black person. It warms one’s heart, it makes us feel so good. Because we’ve come from a horrible past where that was not allowed by law,” he said.

Ramaphosa added that in apartheid South Africa, one would never see black people featured in advertisements for everyday products such as milk or soap. And yet, today, black people appear in almost every advertisement for a South African product — a reflection of the growing realisation that they are key consumers and active economic players, according to Ramaphosa.

“Now, those that would want black people just to play the consumer role are truly mistaken. Black people must play a productive role as well,” he told the House.

“We must allow more and more people to play an important role in the economy of our country. And this is what baffles me by those who are opposed to black economic empowerment. I say, what do you want to see happening — do you want to see black people continuing to play the role of labourers, drawers of water, hewers of wood and consumers only? Why can’t black people be made to own productive aspects of work? Why can’t they be rich as well?

“Dr Mulder, you look at the Afrikaners, the history of your people. If you look at the history of your people, they were held back by the English and, with [the] latter days, they were enabled; they became more and more economically empowered… Why can’t the same be done for black people?” DM