Broad-based BEE is not optional, says deputy minister Joel Mohai

Broad-based black economic empowermentis not an optional policy experiment but critical for redressing centuries of colonial conquest and apartheid exclusion, Deputy Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Joel Mohai says. “To oppose all remedial measures is to misunderstand the democratic settlement,” Mohai said at the B-BEEE Symposium at the University of Johannesburg on Tuesday. The policy has recently come under fire, with billionaire Elon Musk calling it “extremely racist” after his Starlink company continued to face challenges in securing a licensing permit.

Starlink has been in adeadlock with the government, which requires all companies to cede 30% ownership to historically disadvantaged locals. Mohai said President Cyril Ramaphosa had set out the government’s position in his State of the Nation address when he stated: “Now is not the time to abandon B-BBEE, now is the time to make it effective.” Mohai debunked “several misleading narratives” about the policy, which he said forced citizens to choose between economic growth and inclusion, adding that exclusion weakened demand and narrowed the income base. The notion that “because implementation has flaws, the principle itself must be discarded” was not correct, he said, adding that his department had been confronting superficial compliance.

“Implementation failure can never be an excuse for the miscarriage of justice.” He saidopposition to the policyhad distorted reality by stating that broad-based BEE had benefited a few. “It is equally true that many of the black South Africans who rose in business through empowerment opportunities have had no relation whatsoever to the African National Congress,” he said. Mohai credited the increase of black enterprises to “professional excellence and competitiveness” and discredited “the false narrative of empowerment and inclusion as discrimination”.

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He said his department faced “subtle resistance to delays” and “procedural obstruction”. South Africa “cannot afford a political posture that seems to ignore historical exclusion”. “Many black-owned firms remain trapped as subcontractors and are undercapitalised,” Moha said, noting that land access alone was insufficient without water rights, capital and market access.

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