MIYELANI SHIKWAMBANA | BEE has taken a backseat in our battered economy

The appointment of First Rand CEO, Mary Vilakazi, has been widely welcomed as the first black woman to run the banking group. Significantly, it shows a carefully planned succession plan after joining the group in 2018 as COO to finally assume the CEO role six years later.

The question is how many corporates have invested in black talent that emerges in their upper echelons to take over from their white counterparts. According to the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) latest indicators, SA’s GDP markedly grew at an average rate of 3.6% from 1994 to 2007, with the number of people with jobs increasing from 8-million to 14-million, and the average GDP per capita increased by almost 40%, from R55,000 to R76,000 per year in real terms, after adjusting for inflation. However, our economy for the period 2008 to 2022 the average GDP growth rate was a lacklustre 1.2%.

The IRR further says the number of people with jobs increased by barely a million over a period of 14 years, while the population grew by 10-million over the same period. As such our GDP per capita declined by R1,600, as people became poorer in real terms and the unemployment rate has crept up over the years and now sits at an astonishing 32.9% (up from 22.6% in 2008), or 42.4%(29.5%) on the expanded definition that includes discouraged job seekers.

This begs the question if the IRR’s economic indicators are a reflection of how black economic empowerment (BEE) has taken a back seat in the current tough economic environment. The number of companies on the JSE has decreased with many opting to delist their operations to avoid the regulatory requirements and scrutiny.

The number of black executives has also decreased significantly in the bloodbath that is being experienced in our battered economy. One shudders to think what it will be like if the economy continues to bleed jobs as many media houses are under financial pressure to shrink operations or retrench their journalists.

As such, corporates will not be held accountable by the media that is now experiencing an exodus of excellent journalists to hold them accountable to explain the old adage of “who will guard the guardians”.

What is to be done? BEE in SA is no longer on top of the agenda of many corporates who are now able to game the system by hiring consultants to help them to fudge the numbers to get a good score. What is missing is an equivalent of Sars enforcement that can ensure that what we see in BEE scorecards reflect the depth of what companies are doing to advance transformation.

Until state institutions hire top talent to monitor the progress of BEE, many skilled professionals will be lost in the system and the celebration of the First Rand CEO will keep being an anomaly as opposed to being a norm. Thirty years of democracy deserves to see more black talent at the upper echelons of corporate SA if we are to advance our transformation agenda that now seems like a dream deferred.

BEE should not be scrapped but be drastically reformed to avoid the loopholes that have allowed the B-BBEE codes to be gamed by corporates

.■ Shikwambana is a founder andCEO of Thandiso Advisory