(NEW ERA) Namibians hear of SA BEE failures - by Irene !Hoaës
Namibians hear of SA BEE failures - by Irene !HoaësWINDHOEK – Two-hundred and fifty billion rands were transferred via the black economic empowerment (BEE) policy between the years 2000 and 2005 in South Africa.
However, according to the president of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF) Lebo Gunguluza, only a dozen people were truly enriched through the money.
Gunguluza, who was a guest speaker at the Namibia Tourism Board’s (NTB) stakeholders dinner recently, said BEE focus became narrow-based contributing largely to only two of the seven BEE pillars such as ownership and skills development.
Ownership recorded the highest levels of progress at 60 percent, while skills develoment recorded 42 percent.
The other five pillars of BEE are management control, employment equity, preferential procurement, enterprise development and socio-economic development.
Gunguluza said enterprise development scored the lowest process points against targeted points at only 12,2 percent.
“This may be ascribed to many enterprises adopting a wait-and-see approach coupled with the fact that big corporates started the elements of Broad Based BEE that had the most direct benefits to their enterprises,” the SABEF president said.
Gunguluza said the first phase of the Broad Based BEE in South Africa had benefited politically-connected and an educated group of black elite without sufficiently addressing the broader economic empowerment of the masses.
Among other constraints were the fact that the South African government spent too much time and resources on codes of good practice and sector charters, rather than looking at successful avenues of implementation, just creating an industry of consultants.
He further singled out the uneasiness of white businesses around the impact of BB-BEE to their businesses and economy, the general percentage of skills shortage of suitably qualified black job entrants as well as the direct and indirect fronting practices, which have crippled BEE efforts, as perceived constraints to the BEE process.
Gunguluza told NTB and its stakeholders that the role of transformational leadership in Namibia is therefore the way to go into business.
“Leaders have to strive to make their businesses learning organisations. This requires dynamism in leadership, rather than the maintenance mentality that has dominated South Africa in the beginning process,” he advised the gathering, which also saw the commissioning of the Road Show to Europe for the first group of BEE in the tourism sector.
He said BEE should not be seen as a compliance issue but a business strategy for the new times.
“Companies must ensure that their marketing teams, customer service and other critical teams are diversified to reflect the demographic and psychographic reality of Namibia,” Gunguluza noted.
According to Gunguluza, big companies need to pay attention to ensure that strategic projects are staffed appropriately.
“The most common approach to BEE is getting black recruits into junior, insignificant positions, while leaving the projects that are critical to black-owned enterprises’ growth solely in white hands.”
Gunguluza said to promote the participation of black people in the mainstream tourism space, it is important for the NTB to identify talented staff for business start-ups, select a core group of suppliers with potential and/or ability to deliver to the needs of big business and train them to become eligible or preferred suppliers.
“The philosophical approach is what Namibia needs to make the BB-BEE the driver for economic transformation and change, and even if it is currently not legislated, this will get the bulk of your black population actively involved in your economy,” the SABEF president said.
posted by MrK @ 5:43 AM
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