Key Points:
- Black economic empowerment should be linked directly to the expansion of the economic base and restructuring of society and through that, it should be the driver of new economic growth.
- After South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, the government increasingly introduced legislation on BEE, and by 2000 there were at least 24 laws or regulations that dealt with BEE requirements.
- The government’s strategy for broad-based BEE – on which the Codes of Good Practice are based – effectively sets targets of 25 per cent black ownership across the economy by 2014.
- BEE is a political necessity to correct the persistent imbalances in economic participation in South Africa, however, narrowly based BEE has enriched only a minority.
- Additionally, BEE is inward looking and has done little to make South Africa globally competitive.
