South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) scheme is largely known as a politician social grant to feed their stomachs. Capitec’s chief executive officer (CEO), Gerrie Fourie Speaking in an interview with 702 says “If you look at BEE in totality in South Africa, it hasn’t worked because it should be there to help all South Africans and, unfortunately, it has only helped a couple of people. I think that is something we need to work on.
“There is also an attitude in South Africa that we need to work on that says ‘what can I do?’ rather than (focusing on) entitlement. I think that’s quite crucial for our culture going forward.”
Propose new directions
- Growth – Each and every person in South Africa should concentrate on growing and building jobs;
- Execution – The second one is to execute. It is pretty nice talking about things but the execution is important because when you execute, you discover and you see what works.
- Positivity – Let’s be positive and look a the possibilities (within South Africa).
New regulations
Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, says that his department plans to propose severe measures against employers who do not meet employment equity targets.
In August, Nxesi expressed anxiety at the slow pace of workplace transformation and assured that the government will now propose new legislation to remedy these issues.
Answering in a modern parliamentary Q&A concourse, Nxesi said that the incoming Employment Equity Amendment Bill will expedite the pace of transformation and address non-compliance with the specifications of the Employment Equity Act (EEA).
Punishments to non-compliant businesses in two main ways:
- All organizations that are believed non-compliant will no longer be able to receive the financial benefits of making business with the state;
- Even non-compliant organizations that do not significantly depend on state contracts for their business will still have to face outcomes by being referred to the Labour Court for a penalty to be levied against them.