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Mail & Guardian
10-06-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Ramaphosa defends BEE as vital for inclusive economic growth
President Cyril Ramaphosa President Cyril Ramaphosa has again defended black economic empowerment, saying the In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said South Africa should 'pursue growth and transformation in concert' and must 'dispense with the false notion that we must make a choice between growth and transformation'. Economic growth without transformation would entrench exclusion, while transformation without growth was unsustainable, he warned. The remarks follow mounting opposition to broad-based black economic empowerment (broad-based BEE) and the Employment Equity Act, including from political parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus, which are part of Ramaphosa's government of national unity. In May, Freedom Front Plus urged Ramaphosa to dispose of BEE laws and commit to investor friendly policies after he led a delegation to the United States to try to mend damaged relations over what President Donald Trump says are South African laws that discriminate against whites. The DA is challenging the Malatsi rejected suggestions that the regulations were aimed at paving the way for Elon Musk's Starlink to operate in South Africa, as critics have suggested. Starlink has failed to get an operating licence because South African-born Musk refused to meet broad-based BEE ownership requirements. South Africa's drive for transformation stands in contrast to the US's rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion measures, which puts at risk global policy coherence ahead of the G20 presidency handover between the two countries later this year. Although it has been widely criticised for only benefiting the politically-connected and being riddled with corruption, Ramaphosa praised broad-based BEE for creating black industrialists and changing management control and patterns of ownership in companies. 'The progress we have made is undeniable. We have seen real changes in ownership patterns, including more businesses owned by women. We have seen changes in management control, enterprise development and skills development,' he wrote in the newsletter. He noted that, according to Statistics South Africa, from 2006 to 2023, black African households experienced real income growth of 46%, coloured households of 29% and Indian households of 19%. 'Despite this progress, the average income of white households is still nearly five times higher than that of black African households. This is the gulf we must close through deliberate and sustained efforts to expand opportunity,' Ramaphosa added. He highlighted the 'poly-crisis' of global conflict, economic stagnation, mistrust in institutions and climate change as the challenge to government efficiency. The Institute of Race Relations has criticised broad-based BEE, arguing instead for ' Ramaphosa said transformation would continue as a guiding principle for the government's infrastructure programmes, new industries in the green transition, localisation efforts and reindustrialisation. 'The transformation we seek is not about ticking boxes. It is about building a resilient, just economy for generations to come,' he wrote in the newsletter.
The Citizen
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Merafong residents brace for major tariff hikes after municipal budget approval
Residents of Merafong are set to experience significant increases in municipal service charges from 1 July 2025, after the 2025/2026 municipal budget was officially approved during a Special Council Meeting on 28 May. The newly approved budget outlines steep hikes across various services: Water tariffs will rise by 15.30% Electricity tariffs will increase by 8–11%, depending on usage Sewerage services will go up by 9.5% Refuse removal will increase by 6% Sundry tariffs will also rise by 6% In addition, property rates for residents living in towns will rise by 5%, while agricultural properties and Public Service Infrastructure (PSI) will see a 3% increase. Mine property rates will rise by 4.4%. The total budgeted expenditure exceeds R2.7 billion, with the largest portion allocated to debt repayment, followed by spending on bulk purchases such as water and electricity. Employee-related costs are expected to total R466,720,835. Despite opposition from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus), the budget was passed by majority vote. These increases are likely to place additional financial strain on residents already grappling with rising living costs. The municipality has defended the hikes as necessary to ensure service delivery and cover growing operational expenses. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Daily Maverick
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Do the World Bank and International Monetary Fund say BEE is holding SA back?
In Parliament this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the World Bank and the IMF had identified concentrated ownership of the economy, not BEE, as constraining South Africa's economic growth. Was he right? 'For you, sir, to say that BEE [black economic empowerment] is holding our economy back goes completely against what even the World Bank says!' Thus responded a decidedly testy President Cyril Ramaphosa to Freedom Front Plus leader Corné Mulder in Parliament this week on the topic of the government's economic policies and whether he would be prepared to ditch BEE. Ramaphosa continued: 'A few years ago, the World Bank and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] came out with a report that one of the things that holds our economy back from growth is the level of concentration. Concentration because, they said, the ownership of the economy is in far too few hands. Ownership has not spread. That is what the World Bank and IMF said.' But is Ramaphosa correct? Which report was he talking about? The difficulty here is that Ramaphosa did not specify which reports from 'a few years ago' he was referencing, and Daily Maverick's questions to his spokesperson in this regard went unanswered on Thursday, 29 May. Both the World Bank and the IMF, however, released reports about South Africa earlier this year. The IMF's was a Country Report launched in January; the World Bank's was launched in February and titled ' Driving Inclusive Growth in South Africa: Quick Wins with Competitive Markets and Efficient Institutions '. What does the IMF say about BEE? The IMF's latest report, partially vindicating Ramaphosa, does not explicitly mention BEE, employment equity or affirmative action. It says that its own figures show 'that white South Africans earn almost twice as much as black South Africans on average after controlling for key individual and structural characteristics'. It further states: 'Closing the gender and racial pay gaps would increase the income of women and non-white population, whose wages remain significantly below the average. Achieving this goal would reduce the Gini coefficient [measuring inequality] by 4 points.' How about the World Bank? Here's where things get a bit more uncomfortable for Ramaphosa, because the World Bank report did identify BEE as a potential 'market distortion' which has 'not been evaluated for effectiveness'. The report did not, however, call for the scrapping of BEE. It stated instead that foreign investors, specifically, should be given alternatives to the ownership regulations of BEE. One of the 'essential reforms' recommended by the World Bank was the following: 'Streamlining firm entry and operational prerequisites related to the 2013 B-BBEE for foreign investors by making systematic use of Equity Equivalence Investment Programs when investors commit to train Black workers and develop supply chains with local businesses. The B-BBEE requires companies to meet specific thresholds of Black ownership and management control to participate in government tenders and contracts. While the B-BBEE is well intentioned, managing required scorecards places a heavy burden on public administration and foreign companies.' It noted that the government had already applied the Equity Equivalence Investment Programe to IT companies, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, and banks — JP Morgan — since 2021, permitting these companies to make up their BEE scorecards through alternative mechanisms, including training and involving small black-owned companies in their supply chain. 'The government's next step could be to extend these programs more broadly by clearly outlining eligibility criteria for investors interested in participating,' the World Bank advised. What did these bodies have to say about the 'concentration' issue? Ramaphosa is correct that both the IMF and the World Bank identified market concentration as one of the constraints on economic growth, although in both reports the issue received only a few sentences of attention. 'Market concentration has substantial costs for the economy, and these have risen over time,' wrote the World Bank. 'When market power is concentrated in a few dominant firms, markets are unlikely to innovate and find solutions that will allow them to remain competitive over time.' The IMF, meanwhile, recorded: 'High market concentration in several sectors, including manufacturing and banking, has inhibited the emergence of smaller firms that create new jobs.' Conclusion: Half-truths are the name of the game all over The World Bank did not give the South African government a free pass on BEE, as Ramaphosa seemed to suggest; it did identify the policy as a potential deterrent to foreign investment in particular. But neither did the World Bank or the IMF suggest in these two reports that BEE should be scrapped as the primary obstacle to economic growth, as Ramaphosa's critics have made out. In 2020, the DA wrote to the IMF to request that a loan of $4.3-billion granted by the IMF for Covid distress payments to companies be conditional on it being exempted from BEE requirements. The IMF did not accede to the request. DM
IOL News
28-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
DA's hypocrisy knows no bounds
DA leader John Steenhuisen interacts with US President Donald Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa during a recent official visit to Washington. Image: The Presidency PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa may have to think twice before including DA leader John Steenhuisen in official visits after his poor performance characterised by political posturing during the heated Oval Office meeting in the US last week. Ahead of his visit to the US as part of Ramaphosa's delegation, Steenhuisen promised that the highest issues on his priority list would be securing trade relations between the US and SA, particularly in agriculture, to protect jobs, grow the economy and expand employment opportunities. 'This delegation to Washington DC represents all South Africans, who have entrusted us to put the shared national interests, and desire for economic growth and job creation first, ahead of any party, or ideological positions. As a proud member of this GNU delegation, I will endeavor to ensure every effort is made to mend, and improve relations between the US and SA.' When presented with a rare chance to do so, Steenhuisen bungled it spectacularly. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Instead of dispelling Trump's false narrative of white genocide in South Africa, he continued his party's tired claim that there were farm murders here, indirectly confirming the fake news that farmers were specifically targeted. How affirming would it have been for him to inform the world that Julius Malema's chants were nothing more than that; and quite frankly the courts have taken the position that they remain part of our painful history. But he would not dare say this because it would be against every effort his party had made to win back the Afrikaner vote from the Freedom Front Plus. Steenhuisen, with the help of his colleagues in the DA, just has to study the recent crime stats to see why his argument of farm murders is problematic. A breakdown of the stats shows that only six murders linked to farms were recorded in the first quarter of 2025, with five of the victims being black. Compare that with the murders taking place daily- not over three months- in Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, Nyanga, Inanda, Umlazi and Mamelodi, then you see why it's difficult arguing against criticism that Steenhuisen and the DA are hypocrites.
Daily Maverick
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
It's not BEE holding SA economy back, it's exclusive ownership, says Ramaphosa
In defence of BEE, President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa's redress policies aren't the issue stifling economic growth. 'Why can't black people be made to own productive aspects of work? Why can't they be rich as well?' President Cyril Ramaphosa asked MPs in the House on Tuesday. They were questions posed by the President in a lengthy response to a question from Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) leader and MP Dr Corné Mulder, who asked, during a Q&A session in Parliament, whether Ramaphosa was prepared to develop an economic policy 'that can make possible, real economic growth' in South Africa. This 'real, new economic policy', as far as Mulder was concerned, needs to take a different approach with regard to 'certain basic things' that he suggested Ramaphosa wasn't prepared to do. Mulder said these 'certain basic things' related to black economic empowerment (BEE), employment equity, affirmative action and the Expropriation Act. (The FF Plus, a partner in SA's 10-party broad coalition government, is strongly opposed to the aforementioned policies.) 'Are you prepared to do that?' Mulder asked Ramaphosa. The President delivered nothing short of a sharp klap in response, saying at several points in his speech that he was 'baffled by people who still hanker [for] policies of the past. 'I'm rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of black economic empowerment militate against the growth of our economy. That I find quite surprising, because I work from the starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past. Those racist policies prevented all South Africans — or the majority of South Africans — [from playing] a meaningful role in the economy of their own country. 'Black people were brought in [as] hewers of wood and drawers of water. They were brought in as labourers, they were not even seen as consumers. They were not seen as active players in the economic landscape of our country. 'With democracy, what has now been happening and what we seek to see happening is the opening up of the economy; the broadening up of economic participation, which if you observe, Honourable Dr Mulder, you will actually see, and it's right in your face,' said Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa's response was delivered with a particular intensity, possibly as a result of the current spotlight on South Africa's employment equity policies on the back of a new policy directive issued by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, which is looking at relaxing the regulations around BEE ownership for satellite internet service providers. The move is seen as potentially paving the way for Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by the tech billionaire and de facto head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, to operate in SA without ceding ownership. Race-based redress in its various forms in SA has been the subject of attacks from Musk and US President Donald Trump for months. Ramaphosa's statements also follow the DA's challenge to Section 15A of the Employment Equity Amendment Act heard in the Gauteng Division of the High Court earlier this month. Despite years of empowerment policies, deeply entrenched structural inequalities remain stubbornly resistant, which critics have pointed to as signs that the policies have failed to address the challenge of redress, Daily Maverick has reported. Critics claim BEE has enabled corruption and State Capture, with the DA's Helen Zille equating redress with State Capture. Ramaphosa said the Government of National Unity would spend 'a considerable amount of hours' in the days to come discussing the economic strategy and trajectory that South Africa should pursue. He continued: 'Our ambition, Honourable Dr Mulder, is to make sure that our economy grows [more] than what the projections are currently. 'Our objective is to spread economic participation broadly, and I will hold on to the argument that the more we have previously disadvantaged people playing a role in the economy of their own country, the better it is.' 'Concentration of ownership' Ramaphosa referred to reports by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which, he said, found that among the factors restricting South Africa's economic growth was the level of market and capital ownership concentration. 'Concentration because, they said, the ownership of the economy is in far too few hands — ownership has not spread. 'Now, I find it very worrying that we continue to have this notion that BEE is the one that's holding our economy back. It is the partial and exclusive ownership of the means of production in our country that is holding this economy [back] from growing,' said Ramaphosa. 'If we accept that the ownership of our economy is imbalanced, the clause on equality in our Constitution seeks to undo that; to redress that. So, therefore, ownership of our economy should be broadened. 'And I can tell you, Dr Mulder, there's nothing that gives our people [as much] joy — particularly black people — as they go around and they find that this production facility's owned by a black person. It warms one's heart, it makes us feel so good. Because we've come from a horrible past where that was not allowed by law,' he said. Ramaphosa added that in apartheid South Africa, one would never see black people featured in advertisements for everyday products such as milk or soap. And yet, today, black people appear in almost every advertisement for a South African product — a reflection of the growing realisation that they are key consumers and active economic players, according to Ramaphosa. 'Now, those that would want black people just to play the consumer role are truly mistaken. Black people must play a productive role as well,' he told the House. 'We must allow more and more people to play an important role in the economy of our country. And this is what baffles me by those who are opposed to black economic empowerment. I say, what do you want to see happening — do you want to see black people continuing to play the role of labourers, drawers of water, hewers of wood and consumers only? Why can't black people be made to own productive aspects of work? Why can't they be rich as well? 'Dr Mulder, you look at the Afrikaners, the history of your people. If you look at the history of your people, they were held back by the English and, with [the] latter days, they were enabled; they became more and more economically empowered… Why can't the same be done for black people?' DM
