Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, is no stranger to the critique of BEE (Black Economic Empowerment). Five years ago, he dubbed BEE ” a device for white-dominated corporations to build bridges with the ANC elite … It doesn’t create wealth or add value to the economy”. Recently he returned to the attack, declaring that: “A new class of rich blacks, many of them ANC politicians and former politicians, has emerged in South Africa whose interests are virtually indistinguishable from those of the old economic oligarchy…This new class supports the perpetuation of the migrant labour system and South Africa’s continued reliance on mineral exports.” The country, says Mbeki, is “now entering a new phase of conflict – between the black political elite and the masses over how to distribute state revenue between them.” Morever, he claims, South Africa’s largest companies (citing Anglo American, Billiton, and mining finance house, Old Mutual plc) “realised that conflict between the black political elite and black masses was inevitable and would probably be even fiercer than the struggle between the black masses and Afrikaner nationalism.” And that’s why they “moved their head offices and their primary listings from Jo’burg to London.” Meanwhile, the condition of ordinary citizens “continues to deteriorate” and the only recourse should be to abolish BEE – “if we are not to tear the country apart.”
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9709.