The Department of Trade and Industry must have misunderstood how apartheid South Africa’s financial support produced businesses that have grown more than five-fold during post-1994 to graduate into conglomerates, argues outgoing Nedbank Chairman, Ruel Khoza.
While acknowledging that funds provided by the apartheid government had some part to play in the development of white businesses, success was down to the individual’s industry.
“These were people who had a fine skills set, who were entrepreneurial in their own right. It was not empowerment in the sense we understand it today.
“You had people applying for capital who had more than their fair degree of whiteness to show, who had the necessary skills,” he says.
Instead, the main criterion is that if BEE is to succeed, individuals need to bring to the table a skills set (intellectual capital), says Khoza.
