By Nicola Mawson
Political economist Moeletsi Mbeki has reiterated his long-standing belief that South Africa should do away with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), saying this policy has been the main driver of corruption and inefficiency within the government.
Mbeki has been one of BEE’s biggest detractors, together with affirmative action, arguing that they were the main drivers of corruption in South Africa and a disservice to the economy.
Speaking at PSG’s Think Big series yesterday, Mbeki however said, that it was unlikely that policies will change when a new government is installed, given the outcome of the recent elections and the parties with the most votes.
“The ANC represents the black middle class, that’s why its primary policy has been black economic empowerment,” he said.
Mbeki also noted that critical areas of the economy, such as electricity and logistics, had been mismanaged by the government for a long time, but South Africa was not in a crisis, at least not yet.
“South Africa is not off track. The DA is making propaganda that South Africa needs to be rescued. South Africa is not in a crisis,” Mbeki said.
“Yes, the railways are now working. Yes, Eskom is not working, or the government says now it is working, but South Africa is not off track and is not in a crisis.
“What the ANC government has done has not brought about a crisis in our society. What it has done, it has mismanaged the railway system, it has mismanaged the electricity supply, it has disincentivized entrepreneurship by its policies of black economic empowerment and so on, but that does not mean the country is in a crisis or off the rails or needs to be rescued."
Mbeki said South Africans did not yet fully understand how a capitalist society worked, that it indirectly puts the interests of the (higher) social classes first.
According to Mbeki, there was a need for government to focus on socio-economic aspects and not race.
Mbeki said a change in the bloated public service was unlikely, as all parties set to get seats in Parliament will benefit from it, and likely to seek to retain.
Mbeki said the economy would continue to stagnate and the country would remain unstable with a large number of poor people, as the public sector was the highest paid in the world when measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) at 14%, and taking resources away from areas such as education and housing.
He noted that more than 55 000 public servants were earning more than R1 million: “That is a critical problem that South Africa faces.”
Mbeki said what was not discussed in the election manifestos was how to solve the problem of unemployment, even though job creation was promised by many political parties.
The most recent quarterly labour force survey from Statistics South Africa showed that unemployment was at 32.9%, a figure that moves up to 42.4% when looking at the expanded rate, which includes discouraged work seekers.
Mbeki said that as the top five political parties campaigned for the vote of the middle class, they excluded other socio-economic groups, meaning that many people did not feel represented, and this was causing instability in the country.
“These parties are not representative of the large majority of South African workers,” he said.
“What we don’t have in South Africa are political parties telling us how to create an economy to employ all able-bodied people to work.”
Moving forward, Mbeki said the ANC may be totally annihilated by 2029 if it did not change its policies, with new parities representing other classes apart from the middle class, will emerge
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