BEE polarises SA - letter to Business Day

On Thursday Business Day published my letter headlined "BEE polarises SA" - read it below or on BDFM here.

Let me know what you think. The DA is submitting our response to the new BEE codes and we need your input.

Is it time BEE was phased out completely, or do we need new ways of redressing the inequities of the past that also incentivise the creation of new businesses and jobs? This is an important debate that will not go away.

"Last Friday, I was a panellist at the SiMODiSA Start Up SA conference in Cape Town where several hundred representatives of SA’s “entrepreneurial ecosystem” gathered. 

We listened to pitches from aspirant entrepreneurs. At least four were delivered by two people — one black and one white. Assuming they hold a 50-50 stake in their business, under the new Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) codes, they would get a Level 4 rating. If the black entrepreneur shed his white partner, however, he would get a Level 1 rating, leaving his former partner with a Level 5 rating at best.

It would be hard to imagine a more perverse and socially polarising piece of legislation. Everyone I spoke to, of whatever hue, strongly believed the BEE regime in SA had to change. The African National Congress simply does not get entrepreneurship."

Toby Chance, MP

Democratic Alliance shadow minister for small business development