Zuma’s industrial revolution

Cape Town 150305 - The annual adress by the president to the National House of Traditional leaders in parliment -- President Zuma the assembly with Pravin Gordan Picture Brenton Geach

Cape Town 150305 - The annual adress by the president to the National House of Traditional leaders in parliment -- President Zuma the assembly with Pravin Gordan Picture Brenton Geach

Published Mar 6, 2015

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Siyabonga Mkhwanazi

THE Black Business Council (BBC) and the Department of Trade and Industry have backed President Jacob Zuma’s call for the creation of black industrialists.

BBC vice-president Sandile Zungu said yesterday that Zuma has been at the forefront of reshaping the thinking on BEE, to move away from black people simply owning shares to owning industries.

Zuma was addressing the National House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament yesterday when he reiterated his call for black industrialists.

“Our view is that black economic empowerment should not be limited to share ownership schemes only. We want to see industries owned by black people, for us to begin to deracialise the economy and broaden it to improve economic development and create jobs,” Zuma told traditional leaders.

Zuma made similar remarks during the inauguration of new members of the BEE advisory panel at Tuynhuys on Tuesday, saying they wanted to create 100 black industrialists in the next few years.

Zungu said the president was spot on in his assessment.

“The president has been instrumental in reshaping the BEE narrative, away from the narrow minority ownership of shares in established companies to the ownership of controlling interests in productive assets as well as management,” he said.

“This is the essence of the creation of black industrialists. The BBC welcomes the president’s assertions and views them as progressive as they reaffirm the role of black business in growing the economy, employment creation and in expanding the industrial base of our economy,” he said.

He added that critical to the creation of black industrialists was the role of development finance institutions, like the Industrial Development Corporation and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, to give black business people the requisite capital to realise their dreams.

DTI spokesman Sidwell Medupi said Zuma was correct in his assessment. He said that was why his department was talking about creating 100 black industrialists.

In the coming weeks, the department will host a summit on black industrialists.

Late last year, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Mzwandile Masina launched a programme to create 100 black industrialists in three years.

Masina appointed a panel that would assist him to achieve this goal. Like Zuma, Masina said at the time this was part of transforming the economy of the country.

Masina added that this was part of strengthening broad-based black economic empowerment to get more black people involved in the mainstream economy.

The government has been using a scorecard for companies to meet BEE requirements.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies had admitted in Parliament a few years ago that some of the companies were using fronting, but that they had strengthened the BEE legislation, which imposed tougher penalties.

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