B-BBEE commissioner Tshediso Matona has called for stronger legislation akin to that which the Competition Commission uses to have better oversight in tackling and implementing economic redress in SA.
In an interview with Business Day, Matona says noncompliance, fronting and incompetence were at a record high and the B-BBEE commission’s hands were tied.
“Policy should be dynamic and should always be evolving. The Competition Commission is a good example. A few companies and people are giving BEE a bad name. The outcomes of the B-BBEE Commission are not aligned with the intentions. There are some taking advantage. BEE should be a collective enterprise. We need to create a framework that can better develop the economy through transformation. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water and exaggerate them to de legitimate,” Matona said.
The B-BBEE Act (53 of 2003) aims to advance economic transformation and enhance the economic participation of black people in the SA economy. However, the B-BBEE commission can only make recommendations to a court of law and cannot directly issue fines like the Competition Commission can for findings of bad practice.
Only a third of JSE listed companies and 95 of SA’s hundreds of public entities submit reports on their broad-based black economic empowerment performance to the B-BBEE commission as required, making it difficult to measure progress.
Two decades after SA’s BEE legislation was enacted in 2003, the commission estimates black people own about 30% of the economy with black women owning 14%. But empowerment numbers tend to be contested, with a variety of different metrics and targets used in the public and private sectors to measure it.
Matona, who took over as commissioner 13 months ago, said 643 major BEE transactions worth nearly R700bn had been concluded since the commission opened its doors seven years ago. But BEE was not only about ownership, he said, adding that he wanted to see more black people setting up enterprises that created value and employed people. Matona said he was excited about the emergence of black industrialists and their entry into new industries in the digital economy and renewable energy.
He was critical the DA, which has launched legal challenges not just BEE, but also Employment Equity and Affirmative Action.
“It is amazes me that the DA would take issue with race-based policies when we cannot come far enough just yet to consider that. What is the problem we trying to solve the economic challenges of a race that was oppressed for a very very long time? We are trying to undo race-based polices of the past that empowered and enriched white people, so we cannot now suddenly be colour blind because it suits some but not the vast majority in SA. The legal challenge is an attack on the constitution, which calls for redress and proactive measures and through a fair system of preferences that have been put in place,” Matona said.
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