Black Economic Empowerment has become the social grant of ANC politicians, said Moeletsi Mbeki during his lecture on "The Architecture of Management in Africa" at Rhodes University earlier this week.
Black Economic Empowerment has become the social grant of ANC politicians, said Moeletsi Mbeki during his lecture on "The Architecture of Management in Africa" at Rhodes University earlier this week.
Mbeki, who is the deputy chairperson of the South African Institute for International Affairs and brother of former President Thabo Mbeki, addressed students and academics on South African trade ties, education and the gradual de-industrialisation of the country.
Mbeki referred to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as being the social grant of the ANC when one of the students asked him for tips on how to become "an architect of worth" in reference to Moeletsi's book entitled Architects of Poverty.
He said that single party dominance and BEE are the greatest stumbling blocks of South Africa's progress. Responding to a labour law comparison with China, he said that "there is little difference in production, but the difference lies in investing in infrastructure".
Mbeki spoke about the two types of nationalist parties that have ruled South Africa since 1910, saying that this is when the British gave the country to the Afrikaner Nationalists. "We have a date no one wants to celebrate, which is 1910, when South Africans took control of the country," said Mbeki.
He said the Afrikaans nationalist agenda was to empower poor whites with skills and to reduce the British imperialist influence, while the African nationalist agenda was to achieve political equality (which was introduced by the British in the Cape Colony) and to negotiate a democratic system.
According to Mbeki, the outcome of these two respective systems was to drive policies for the industrialisation of South Africa to provide employment for Afrikaners and the redistribution of wealth for African nationalists.
He presented a flow chart which depicts how the former government made profit and used an example of farmers using their properties as profit-making tools and how the current government uses state revenue, supported by an efficient tax collection system, which keeps the poor in poverty.
He spoke about how the current government is consuming instead of producing, using the example of the shrinking footwear production sector, which decreased in local production from 78% in 1985 to 17% in 2005. In the same industry, there were 23 600 employees in 1995 compared to 10 000 in 2006.
Mbeki blames this on the influx of cheap imports from the Far East and the lack of investment in the country, which leads to a decline in employment. "Employment in the country is declining quickly as compared to the developed countries," he said.
Social grants, whose dependents have ballooned from just over two million in 1996/97 to 14 million in 2008/09, are indicative of the citizens' dependence on state funds. "Black nationalists have accepted the role of the victim, not the creator," said Mbeki.
To illustrate how South Africans are consuming more and producing less, Mbeki used pie charts to illustrate South Africa's trade ties with China, its biggest partner. He said China exports more to South Africa while South African exports to China have decreased. "If we carry on de-industrialising, we will be like Zimbabwe. Being at the southern tip of Africa, we will have to jump into the sea," said Mbeki.
A global entrepreneurship monitor table used by Mbeki shows that Africans have the lowest entrepreneurial activity at 0.9%, while Indians/Asians have the highest at 2.7%, "highlighting the lack of initiative that Africans have in terms of entrepreneurs and lack of opportunities," added Mbeki.
When asked about what he would talk about if he would have dinner with President Jacob Zuma, he said: "I'd ask him to scrap BEE and affirmative action and also to take a look at higher education and put in place a realistic school curriculum that will meet the international standards."
He slammed the education loan system that is used in the country, saying that it saddles people with debt before they start working and made the example of the free bursary system used in England for students who excel academically. "Higher levels of educations breeds entrepreneurs that take risks," he said. "Without entrepreneurs you cannot develop an economy."
