Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) remains an imperative in South Africa – Minister Davies

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says black economic empowerment remains an imperative in South Africa. Minister Davies was speaking at the launch of the revised Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice in Midrand, today.

"Black economic empowerment is not just a social and political imperative. We need to make sure that in the country’s economy, control, ownership and leadership are reflective of the demographics of the society in the same way the political space does. That’s why we are saying Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) remains an economic imperative. We cannot expect to grow and develop as a country if the leadership of the economy is still in the hands of only a small minority of the society," said Minister Davies.

He added that the talent pool that is available in the country will not be drawn in its totality if the majority of the country’s population was still excluded from the control of the economy.

"We will only be able to realise the number of benefits of the demographic and democratic changes when all our people have the opportunities which they ought to be having in terms of the values of our Constitution. So BEE is also an economic imperative," added Davies.

Minister Davies said the revised Codes sought to amend the secondary legislation arising from the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act to make sure that people were truly and broadly empowered in South Africa, and genuine broad-based black economic empowerment took place. The amendment of the BEE Act and the revision of the Codes, said Minister Davies, would go a long way in plugging the gaps that businesses have taken advantage of such as fronting, "tick-box" compliance, and the exorbitant amounts of money that small enterprises have to pay to consultants to prove they were BEE compliant. Read the rest at Info.gov.za

Kaya FM's Stevie B spoke to Takalani Tambani, Director responsible for BEE at the DTI to find out more about the launch of the revised Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice. Take a listen to the podcast.