Johannesburg - The Black Management Forum (BMF) has accused the government of backtracking on transformation policies in South Africa.
The forum yesterday said the government had failed to meet its key black economic empowerment objectives and had instead put them at the back of its transformation plans.
BMF managing director Busi Mavuso told a media round table in Rivonia, Johannesburg, that the forum would push the government to eradicate policies that hampered the process of transformation.
Mavuso said transformation was no longer on top of government priorities. She said the BMF would need to find ways to implement new policies that will support its intentions and goals.
“We can not continue with policies that minimise opportunities for blacks. If blacks were also in ownership of companies then there shouldn’t be imbalances in South Africa,” she said.
The BMF is a lobby group that represents black managers and professionals in the country. The organisation aims to promote the development and empowerment of managerial leadership amongst black people.
BMF president Mncane Mthunzi said the organisation wanted to make transformation fashionable again. He said the process should start with the ownership of companies in order to normalise racial representativity in the country.
“We have not dealing with the harsh realities of transformation,” Mthunzi said. “Transformation is now fatigued, and we need to make it fashionable. We want to make it all elements that make economy. Transformation should be seen as a business imperative.”
Research
A study by the Jack Hammer Executive Report last year revealed that out of a total of 334 executives in the top 40 companies, only 21 percent were black.
This year, the department of labour’s Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) said its research showed that white males still dominated top management positions in most companies.
The CEE said in its annual report that the correlation between the number of terminated white males in top management, which stood at 51.2 percent and the national recruitment figures at 42.1 percent was worrisome.
Mthunzi said the BMF should become the advocacy and lobbying body of black companies. “We need to co-operate activism from the JSE to advocate black companies to behave differently. We have been avoiding big issues that we should have dealt with,” he said.
Mthunzi’s deputy, Dumisane Mpafa, said transformation had failed as there were not enough black shareholders in companies.
“Shareholding is very important in transformation,” Mpafa said. “Everything starts with ownership in transformation.”
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