Mashatile says B-BBEE will be tightened so ‘black people don’t have 10% of a Van der Merwe business’

2026-03-19 - 15:00

Deputy President Paul Mashatile told parliament on Thursday that South Africa will not abandon the controversial broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) policy, and that new measures will be introduced to ensure it is fully implemented. Mashatile’s remarks come at a time when South Africa and the US government are at loggerheads over a number of transformation laws, including B-BBEE. Mashatile on B-BBEE “Often in the past, the focus was on what I would call administrative. We would focus on compliance, we would do score sheets and all of that, which is okay. But we have taken a decision that we need to shift to a more empowerment approach, where we look at the implementation of programmes that really empower black businesses. “We will look at some of the issues that come out of the B-BBEE commission, but we must be able to emphasise that we must expand the measures that we are putting in place, but not end up focusing too much on compliance, but also on implementation, getting this business to be able to work and ensure that they have real projects. “We definitely need to expand to do much more, that B-BBEE is really implemented in a real way, it’s not just a paper thing. We need to go out there and see that these people are involved in real businesses and they must be visible those businesses. That will give us a sense of the progress that we are making,” he said. Fronting in white-owned companies The deputy president said government also aims to deal with the issue of fronting, where black people are offered some shares in companies that are owned by white people. “In some of the companies you will see in their books they have somebody maybe with an African name who has got 30% there, but really that is where it ends. It is just a name sometimes. The person does not even know, [and] if they know, they think maybe I will get something. That is not empowerment; empowerment means real involvement in business. “Black people in this country must build enterprises, not be happy that they have 10% of a Van der Merwe business. We want to see black people building factories and not be happy with some 10% here and 20% there,” he said. Mashatile says black people who are just shareholders in white companies are not entrepreneurs unless they are fully active in the business. Funding for black companies Mashatile said government will ensure that institutions, such as the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), funds more black companies to ensure the B-BBEE policy is more effective. “We have to fund unlisted business, most of them emerging, most of them involved in infrastructure. If South Africa wants to drive growth through infrastructure, then resources must also go to companies that are not listed on the stock exchange. “We need to tighten the regulations of these institutions,” he said. Corruption Mashatile said the B-BBEE review process is also meant to deal with corruption linked to this controversial policy. “South Africans have been concerned that the empowerment that we talk about is benefiting a limited amount of people. It is a big concern. We need to ensure that we expand so when we come with initiatives that include the transformation fund that Minister [Parks] Tau launched, we are targeting many people in our country, particularly young entrepreneurs, women, people with disabilities etc. So that we move away from this reality that has been observed that not many South Africans are benefiting from empowerment,” he said. DA’s plan Mashatile said government is also willing to look at what is contained in the DA’s Economic Inclusion for All policy document. The DA proposed this policy to replace B-BBEE, claiming it will help create jobs and grow the economy. But he also said if the ideas contained there are not helpful, government will not take them into consideration.