Victor Kgomoeswana, manager of BEE at Deloitte, explained the wider context of BEE to the FNB client audience. "It's not about anything Black; it's not about South Africa," he said. "Rather, it's about good business sense."
Kgomoeswana referred to the need for South African companies to sustain growth through new markets, in the same way that international companies, such as 3M, have transformed themselves in order to become globally competitive. In the past, South African corporates identified an attractive client as white, male and over 40.
That market is, however, saturated and the growth opportunities limited. Corporates will have to target other potential clients if they are to expand - black people, females, people of younger ages and the enormous markets within the rest of Africa, should be looked at as the markets of the future.
According to Kgomoeswana, BEE would allow for the transformation necessary in order to understand these new markets and that's why BEE makes good business sense.
A further point he raised is that all South Africans need to be brought into the economy to create stability. "Socio-economic stability depends on the majority of South Africans having something to lose," he said. "If people don't have a stake in the economy, crime and chaos will be perpetuated."
Kgomoeswana called on business to treat the issue of skills development more seriously, and he believes that, if approached with enthusiasm by business, the skills development pillar of the codes can help South Africa overcome the serious skills shortage currently threatening the economy.
Another common misconception about BEE is that it's only about ownership of businesses, but this constitutes only 20% of the BEE scorecard and many businesses should look at other elements of the scorecard first.
Kgomoeswana recommended that businesses should consider a broad-based empowerment deal with their staff in order to solve the ownership issue. Employees' commitment to the business will become much greater because they have a stake in the business.
