South Africa: Black Business Wants A Bigger Slice

Who will become the next Patrice Motsepe?

From Fin24 (South Africa): "Having realised that BEE [Black Economic Empowerment, aka affirmative action quotas] has not delivered meaningful ownership of SA’s economy, the Black Business Council is pushing for black entrepreneurs to start their own businesses to create jobs. The Black Business Council celebrated its second anniversary this week amid calls by its bigwigs for government to give black businesses a 30% slice of the planned R1.3 trillion [US$148.5 billion] infrastructure spending. The spending is expected to usher in a new era in South Africa’s re-industrialisation and the council wants to use this investment as a launch-pad for creating 200 black industrialists yearly, starting from next year."

The article continues: "The council’s change in the tone also signifies a shift in strategy in the way black people have been accumulating wealth in the post-apartheid era. In the last 16 years, blacks have amassed a vast quantity of their wealth through buying BEE stakes in large, white-owned companies, but have done very little to create new, sizeable businesses. The council’s executive chairperson, Xolani Qubeka, told City Press that this strategy has failed to create jobs and to promote entrepreneurship among black people. 'We need to inculcate a culture, within our members and a broader black community, that buying stakes in large, white-owned companies does not create jobs. It creates wealth for the shareholders who bought in, but does not create new employment.'"