GUGU LOURIE

Let’s talk frankly.

The “Stellenbosch Mafia” label, sarcastically used to describe mega-wealthy individuals from the winelands in the Western Cape, sounds like a curse. But shame, those businesspeople from the winelands are actually doing the work — raising cash, building new stuff, disrupting their own industries. Think Capitec, Paymenow, CubeSpace, and so on.

They didn’t connive to win a tender or acquire a stake in an established company like our so-called BEE business moguls. It has been 30 years of massive BEE deals. The same few have made billions of rands from state-linked BEE deals and corporate transactions.

And where are these fat cats today? You’ll find them in air-conditioned boardrooms, vineyards in Franschhoek, and expensive houses in Bishopscourt, Zimbali Coastal Estate and La Lucia. They love being chairpersons — collecting R2m a year in board fees. But ask them to build a factory in Mamelodi or fund a coding incubator on the Cape Flats, and they’ll argue the network is “closed”.

Meanwhile, 45% of our youth sit idle at home with no jobs and no hope. And these same BEE elites are the loudest when transformation fails. They blame “white monopoly capital” while buying shares in old mining houses and banks — businesses built by someone else.

From their cosy boardrooms, head-nodding BEE elites shamelessly complain of exclusion.

The BEE plan might be lean and mean, but it misses the transformation point. We all know the easiest way to avoid the terrifying risk of starting a business is to point fingers

Let me break it down. The current BEE model has become a rent-seeking scheme. It’s a crowbar used to pry equity from established companies. The BEE model has created a few millionaires but has so far failed to establish any black-owned innovative companies like Capitec and Yoco.

Starting something is hard. It requires sweat, risk, and the tenacity to overcome failure. It is much easier to buy a stake in a retail chain and collect dividends. And it is even easier to blame the “Stellenbosch Mafia” than admit you’re scared to venture without the shelter of BEE.

The department of trade, industry & competition talks about a R100bn BEE fund. Come closer; let’s talk facts. Money will end up in the same pockets — buying more equity from existing businesses. It won’t reach a young person in Diepsloot building an AI tool. It won’t fund an incubator in Katlehong.

The BEE plan might be lean and mean, but it misses the transformation point. We all know the easiest way to avoid the terrifying risk of starting a business is to point fingers.

“The old boys’ club won’t let us in,” has become a familiar line, and more recently: “It’s a white monopoly conspiracy.”

But where is the black monopoly capital? Where are our angel investors? The so-called “Stellenbosch Mafia” has a dense network of former founders recycling their wealth.

Billionaire Mark Shuttleworth backs Aerobotics. Vinny Lingham backed Luno. These investors don’t ask for a chairman title. They ask for 10% equity and a board observer seat in new economy companies that require funding to grow.

South Africa does not need more chairpersons. We have enough non-executive directors. What we need are BEE founders. People who take their capital and move into the high-risk, high-reward world of venture capital

Just imagine if one BEE mogul were to forgo purchasing another stake in an established retail chain, bank or mining firm and instead invest R5m in a black woman coding AI in Soweto, Alex or Bethal.

Imagine if they built a “Stellenbosch of ekasi”. A township innovation hub where young people build real things. That’s not charity. Capitec returned 100 times. Yoco is estimated to be valued at more than $700m. If BEE moguls had dared to invest R10m in Entersekt in 2008, they’d be sitting on a fortune today.

Instead, they bought shares in a company that created zero jobs. They could have invested in a start-up that creates 50 jobs in three years — real transformation given the 45% unemployment rate.

By refusing to be angel investors, BEE moguls are not just missing wealth — they are failing the jobless youth and abdicating moral leadership.

The ultimate repudiation of the “Stellenbosch Mafia” is not to complain but to beat them by building new digital economy companies. To do that, BEE elites need to take the R5m they were going to spend on a new German car and invest in a 22-year-old coder in Diepsloot.

South Africa does not need more chairpersons. We have enough non-executive directors. What we need are BEE founders. People who take their capital and move into the high-risk, high-reward world of venture capital.

We need a “BEE angel network” that funds the black-owned Capitec of 2035 and a state bank run by business minds, not political deployees.

Until then, stop complaining about the “Stellenbosch Mafia”. They are too busy creating their own future.