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FOUNDATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA
"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
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BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
GUEST SPEAKER
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Black Economic Empowerment
Thank you Programme Director,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentleman, a Proudly South African good evening
I am humbled and honoured to address you this evening. I have been requested to speak about BEE uncertainties, benefits and potential opportunities.
A subject I am truly passionate about though will not claim to be a fundi of.
I want to discuss BEE from a perspective of grassroots, who are the very majority we are striving to bring into the economic mainstream.
That has always been the mission of NAFCOC, from its inception it fought the laws that prohibited self-employment and entrepreneurship and deprived us of viable business opportunities.
These laws were:
Now with the advent of democracy the government worked tirelessly to redress these imperfections. In consultation with a number of stakeholders, the government has legislated BEE into an Act of the 9th of January 2004.
What Black Economic Empowerment seeks to achieve:
Business, labour and the community must partner to make sure that BEE is implemented and monitored to achieve the desired results.
We need to translate BEE into practical tangible terms so that there is economic activity at local level, without downplaying the other aspects of BEE.
I believe through procurement opportunities, we are able to draw in a substantial number of economic players in a relatively short space of time.
We need to leverage on that, government is the largest buyer of goods and services.
Contracts for privatisation should be small enough for broad based participation in general and the paper work of the tender documents should be simplified for better understanding.
Business entities and chambers should assist its members in complying with the tendering process through our strategic partnership with the private sector.
We need to encourage access to procurement opportunities.
For our people to deliver on these contracts we need to develop their skills on business principles, business and financial management.
Designing and implementing programmes for different entry levels with the assistance of training institutions and mentoring.
Dissemination of information to local structures through partnership with all the social partners at this level.
In calculating entrepreneurship in the early stages by introducing this in our education curriculum.
Business partnering with tertiary institutions, for career guidance, encouraging multifaceted skilling.
Many of our people have good ideas which need to be nurtured in a business by providing necessary support, through training, access to funding and encouraging partnership for transfer of skills.
There must be intensified support for SMME development because if this is nurtured well, it has a potential of creation of jobs that our country so desperately need.
A key constraint to growth is our narrow entrepreneurial base and low skills base. When you have a better skill base, you will have growth.
By increasing growth, you create a better middle class because presently this seems to be missing. This impacts on growth as there is little domestic spending.
What BEE seeks to achieve is a broader base of beneficiaries. Rather than creation of a black elite, because that is a narrow base.
We encourage and applaud the success of black corporations, but BEE must be weaned of the premise that it is a phenomenon confined to the formal economy.
The challenge for these corporations is cascading empowerment through procurement opportunities to smaller player.
In conclusion, I believe that the premise of empowerment is the national skills development, because from that you achieve an increased skills base, with more entrepreneurs, and the creation of new enterprises, jobs and economic growth.
Buhle Mthethwa
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DISCLAIMER
The Foundation for the Development of Africa
THE FDA SUPPORTS AND ENDORSES:
© Copyright 1999
20 JANUARY 2004
Ms Buhle Mthethwa
Secretary General
NAFCOC (National)
A. The Group Areas Act - uprooting millions, leading to large capital losses and destruction of the fabric of black small enterprises.
B. Restriction to homeland areas, which were not only poor but had poor infrastructure and lacked a dynamic business environment.
C. Curtailed property ownership for blacks so that they could not acquire assets that served as collateral for loan financing.
D. Education restricted to subjects excluding maths and science.
1. A substantial increase in the number of blacks that own, control and manage existing and new enterprises.
2. A significant increase in new black enterprises, black empowerment and black engendered enterprises.
3. A significant number of blacks in senior executive and management positions.
4. Increased ownership of land.
5. Increased income for blacks and reduction of income inequalities between and within race groups.
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