Broad-based BEE is under attack like never before, with fake news and statistics polluting and inflaming public discourse — like the story about the nonexistent white genocide.
Debates about transformation are toxic and polarised, mostly along racial lines. There is a court case or threats of lawsuits to challenge every attempt to strengthen transformation policies.
Wits University professor William-Mervin Gumede recently said R1-trillion had been transferred to about 100 politically connected people. A quick sense check should make it obvious that this is not true. It means that the 100 individuals received an average of R10bn each, which is clearly nonsense.
I am the expert on this topic and have interviewed and met most of the founders and leaders of large BEE companies. After 31 years of democracy there is now a “super league” of about 30 companies (not individuals) that are worth more than R1bn. A handful are worth more than R10bn.
The largest black-owned company is Seriti Resources, which is probably worth R60bn. Royal Bafokeng Holdings, which had a net asset value of R56bn at the end of 2024, is in second position. The Motsepe family’s interests in African Rainbow Minerals and Sanlam are worth about R32bn.
I believe the most successful BEE deal of all time on the JSE was FirstRand’s 2005 transaction, which generated net value of R23.5bn when it was unwound a decade later, creating large black companies such as Kagiso Capital, the Mineworkers Investment Company and the Women’s Development Bank. It also had broad-based trusts that represented employees and communities.
The biggest myth is that BEE has only benefited the politically connected few. While politicians such as Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale benefited from earlier deals, I have done the analysis and can prove that is no longer true.
The overwhelming majority of shares owned by black people on the JSE are broad-based ownership schemes that benefit employees and communities. That I have not participated in a BEE transaction does not mean that this is not true.
There is no space to do justice to the latest fake news about BEE. Solidarity and the Free Market Foundation said JSE firms had achieved 30% black ownership and that R1-trillion to R2-trillion in equity had shifted since 1994. But black ownership on the JSE is not 30%.
There is a “voodoo system” of accounting for black ownership. There is no relationship between actual ownership — as reported by companies in their annual reports — and the figures that appear on their BEE certificates.
Pick n Pay has never done a BEE transaction, yet its 2025 verification certificate shows that is has black ownership of 22.2%. At the end of 2022 there was black ownership of R228bn within the top 50 companies on the JSE, which accounted for 93% of the exchange’s market capitalisation.
This was equivalent to 1.2% of the market capitalisation of the top 50 companies. After excluding the value of foreign assets of listed companies, black ownership was 5.8% of the value of SA assets.
Unemployment, poverty and inequality are macroeconomic policy issues. BEE is a microeconomic policy that is meant to deracialise the commanding heights of the economy. It is idiotic to expect it to reduce unemployment. Private investment is also a macroeconomic policy issue, and it follows GDP growth.
A public sector investment strike is the number one reason for the lack of investment. Over the past decade real per capita public investment collapsed by 40%. That has nothing to do with BEE.
• Gqubule is an adviser on economic development and transformation.
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