Those who thought that implementing the objectives of transformation was going to be a matter of routine are utterly disillusioned, 21 years into the country’s democracy. Unfortunately, contrary to popular expectation, the exercise was never and will never happen overnight. As one delegate at a Black Management Forum put it lucidly during a debate: “It was always going to be and it will certainly be a painful process, not an event… People have not been realistic with themselves. They have been having farfetched expectations.” And he was spot on.
In a random survey amongst diverse races at a conference a week ago, Transform SA Online discovered that all races were skeptical about its relevance and sincerity. By and large, their sentiments are summarised below:
- Reverse racism
Transformation is a system designed to make apartheid beneficiaries who were predominantly white pay back for the privileges they immorally enjoyed at other races’ expense.
- Perpetuation of entitlement
Black people only need to put as little as 30% effort and the rest will follow, because they, well, suffered under apartheid and that’s the only way they can be justly compensated. Hence, they don’t really need to work as hard as their white counterparts.
- Rewarding struggle ‘heroes’
Former MK soldiers have to form small companies with an assurance of being awarded government tenders under BEE as a way of ‘thanking’ them for liberating the country from the shackles of Apartheid. They can also be appointed in influential positions in public institutions regardless of qualifications.
- Forcibly taking over white-owned businesses
Based on the premise that white wealth was illegitimately acquired, passing legislation to ensure that black people get back their birth right is just.
