CAPITALISM ITSELF MAY BE THE LOSER

Black economic empowerment is widely seen as a political imperative. But it seems to do little to address the country’s social and economic imperatives.

One of the arguments put forward for black economic empowerment is that it is necessary to deracialise the South African economy and consolidate support for capitalism. However, there is reason to wonder whether the intended outcome is the likely one.

In the 2004/05 financial year, according to the minister of safety and security, South Africa experienced nearly 6 000 protest actions across the country. Almost daily in the press are reports of shanties being razed by fire in shack settlements. Virtually every week there are reports of outraged communities attacking or killing suspected criminals because the police seem helpless. Public health care is in such crisis that the minister of health publicly declares that she would not go for treatment to one of the state hospitals for which she is responsible. To say nothing of the daily grind of AIDS, poverty, unemployment, and the worst education system in Africa, if available mathematics and science results are anything to go by.

The poor have so far seen few benefits from the billions of rands being spent on empowerment deals. Instead, empowerment is frequently depicted as a form of cronyism — casting doubt on how much it enhances the image of capitalism among those most in need.

Nor is empowerment doing much to create entrepreneurs. If anything, the pursuit of empowerment deals is now being portrayed as a form of entrepreneurship in itself. Wrote Sizwekazi Jekwa not long ago in Finance Week: ‘Empowerment entrepreneurs ... [have to] fight tooth and nail for every scrap they get, with little or no appreciation. They work long, gruesome hours constructing proposal after proposal, desperately trying to convince South Africa’s corporate “kingmakers” that they’re indeed the best for the job.’

Ironically, even an old-style entrepreneur such as Herman Mashaba of Black Like Me fame — who became successful despite all the obstacles apartheid placed in his way — is also being drawn into what he terms ‘the empowerment sector’. According to a recent media report, he has now ‘hurled himself into the BEE game’, where his ‘entrepreneurial flair is proving to be a draw-card which makes up for his lack of the political connections used by many others to clinch deals’.

—John Kane-Berman