Beyond Tenderpreneurship

Mistra Mistra

Description

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies have been a central pillar of attempts to overcome the economic legacy of apartheid. Yet, more than two decades into democracy, economic exclusion in South Africa still largely re?ects the fault-lines of the apartheid era. Current discourse often con?ates BEE with the so-called �tenderpreneurship� referred to in the title, namely the reliance of some emergent black capitalists on state patronage. Authors go beyond this notion to understand BEE�s role from a unique perspective. They trace the history of black entrepreneurship and how deliberate policies under colonialism and its apartheid variant sought to suppress this impulse. In the context of modern South Africa, authors interrogate the complex dynamics of class formation, economic empowerment and redress against the backdrop of broader macroeconomic policies. They examine questions relating to whether B-BBEE policies are informed by strategies to change the structure of the economy. These issues are explored against the backdrop of the experiences of other developing countries and their journeys of industrialisation. The relevant black empowerment experiences of countries such as the United States are also discussed. The authors identify policy and programmatic interventions to forge the non-racial future that the constitution enjoins South Africans to build.

Sujets

• Ethnic Relations
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Race

Informations

• Publié par: The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)
• Date de parution: 16 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781928509134
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 15 Mo

Extrait

Beyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment

E D I T E D B Y Ayabonga Cawe and Khwezi Mabasa

First published by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) in 2020

142 Western Service Road Woodmead Johannesburg

ISBN 978-1-928509-12-7

© MISTRA, 2020

Cover designer: Francois Smit

Production and design by Jacana Media, 2020

Text editor: Terry Shakinovsky

Copy editor: Megan Mance

Proofreader: Nkhensani Manabe

Indexer: Christopher Merritt

Designer: Rachel Zadok

Set in Stempel Garamond 10.5/15pt

Print and bound by Lebone Litho

Job no. 003652

Please cite this publication as follows: MISTRA. 2020.Beyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment. Ayabonga Cawe and Khwezi Mabasa (eds). Johannesburg: Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without prior written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher of the book.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Acronyms and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Introduction: The future of Black Economic Empowerment and  entrepreneurship – Khwezi Mabasa & Ayabonga Cawe1. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

S E C T I O N O N E H I S T O R I C A L C O N T E X T : C L A S S F O R M A T I O N A N D P O L I C Y D E B A T E S

Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3:

The history of black entrepreneurship in South Africa: Surveying trends of black entrepreneurship since the 1800s –Zuko Godlimpi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Black capitalist class formation in South Africa – Megan Bryer48. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Macroeconomic trends and policy context: Creating a conducive policy environment for BEE – Siya Biniza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

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Chapter 4:

Beyond Tenderpreneurship

BEE and structural economic transformation: An analysis of market and industrial diversification – Eddie Rakabe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

S E C T I O N T W O T H E S T A T E A N D E C O N O M I C E M P O W E R M E N T : I N T E R N A T I O N A L A N D D O M E S T I C E X P E R I E N C E S

Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Chapter 8:

The developmental state and Black Economic Empowerment: Lessons from East Asian capitalist models – Khwezi Mabasa121. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning from international experiences: The state and socioeconomic redress – Nwabisa Nontenja & Khethiwe Mavundla. . . . . 149 State intervention and BEE: An appraisal of public enterprises and state regulation – Yamkela FortuneSpengane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 ‘Crypto-plutocratic privilege’: Elite formation at the local state, BEE, corruption and state capture – Thabang Sefalafala. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

S E C T I O N T H R E E C H A L L E N G E S A N D P R O S P E C T S F O R I N C L U S I V E E M P O W E R M E N T : W O R K E R S , E M P O W E R M E N T T R A N S A C T I O N S A N D T H E I N F O R M A L E C O N O M Y

Chapter 9: Chapter 10:

Gambling on the share price: Re-embedding production and operational involvement in B-BBEE – Ayabonga Cawe227. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Informalising Black Economic Empowerment: A human citizen-centred developmental approach – Tessa Dooms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

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Chapter 11:

Contents

Return-to-workers: Trade union investment companies and ESOPS – EbrahimKhalil Hassen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

S E C T I O N F O U R R E T H I N K I N G E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P : L E S S O N S F R O M C A S E S T U D I E S

Chapter 12: Chapter 13:

‘Lost in transformation’? A case study of black youth entrepreneurship in post-apartheid South Africa – T.K. Pooe, Wandile Ngcaweni & Njabulo Zwane313. . Black entrepreneurship journeys – Tessa Dooms & Pearl Pillay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Conclusion: Reimagining Black Economic Empowerment and  black entrepreneurship – Khwezi Mabasa & Ayabonga Cawe. . . . . . . . . . . 359

Index

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

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Preface

T HEREISBROADCONSENSUS  in South Africa that socioeconomic inequalities are not only socially and morally reprehensible. They undermine the tenets of our Constitution as well as social cohesion within communities and the nation at large. The democratic government has introduced numerous policies to reverse centuries of exclusion and marginalisation. Proceeding from the premise that distribution of income and assets is fundamental to social transformation, economic redress has been a key part of post-apartheid policies and programmes. A central pillar of this is Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) in its various dimensions. While it is acknowledged that socioeconomic rights can only be realised over time, the pace of change since 1994 has been pedestrian. Progress has been accompanied by setbacks, missteps and, in some instances, monumental fiascos. Measured on the continuum between success and failure, the de-racialisation of the South African economy has, at best, been modest. Even when factoring in the appreciation, from the very beginning, that Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) would be a protracted process, economic exclusion more than two decades into democracy largely still reflects the fault-lines of the apartheid era. This book tackles the issue of B-BBEE from a unique perspective, while taking into account data and analysis from existing research and discourse. The authors interrogate the complex dynamics of class formation, economic empowerment and redress against the backdrop of broader macroeconomic policies.

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Preface

Proceeding from the understanding that social transformation should include the emergence of a cohort of black capitalists, the book traces the history of black entrepreneurship and how deliberate policies under colonialism and its apartheid variant sought to suppress this impulse. Resistance, adaptation or collaboration thus characterised the relationships between real or aspirant black capitalists and the colonial state. This contrasts with the political economy of post-apartheid South Africa which has laid a favourable canvas on which the process of black capitalist class formation has unfolded. In this context, the authors examine the questions of whether B-BBEE policies are informed by strategies to change the structure of the economy in terms of a clear industrial policy, and the balance within the economy between financial services and productive activities, and between primary and manufacturing sectors. These issues are interrogated against the backdrop of experiences of developmental states and their journeys of industrialisation. Further, experiences of countries such as India and the United States are examined in the context of the technicist setting and monitoring of targets. Embracing the notion of ‘broad-based’ empowerment as an important premise of the transformation process, the authors also examine worker and trade union asset ownership, the organic emergence of a new cohort of entrepreneurs among youth and women, as well as the promotion of small and micro enterprises. The title of this book refers to the notion of ‘tenderpreneurship’ to underline current discourse on the dependence of some of the emergent black capitalists on state patronage. Inversely, the book also emphasises that many black entrepreneurs have in fact succeeded independently of government. Related to this is the issue of embeddedness and autonomy on the part of the state in relation to the capitalist class as a whole. Without the latter, patronage becomes the stock-in-trade, thus disfiguring a legitimate process of class formation. State capture is an extreme manifestation of this, and it finds expression at national and sub-national spheres of government. Black entrepreneurship journeys in post-apartheid South Africa are many and varied; and they include the gender dimension which is

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Beyond Tenderpreneurship

integrated into the body of the various chapters. As the authors show, there have been stellar performers and abject failures. Through their comprehensive accounts and analyses of the extremes and the grey areas in between, they extract lessons that should stand the country in good stead as it seeks to speed up the process of social transformation. In this context, the book identifies policy and programmatic interventions to forge the non-racial future that the Constitution enjoins South Africans to build. The Mapungubwe Institute hopes that these interventions will generate further strategic debates on the complex question of capitalist class formation in a post-colonial context, and also encourage more focused interventions to attain socioeconomic redress in the context of the fundamental restructuring of the South African economy. We are therefore profoundly grateful to the authors and all the other partners who have contributed to this research effort.

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Joel Netshitenzhe Executive Director

Acknowledgements

T M IStrategic Reflection (MISTRA) for HE APUNGUBWE NSTITUTE would like to express its deep gratitude to the project leaders and co-editors of this book, Ayabonga Cawe and Khwezi Mabasa, who provided invaluable oversight of, and editorial contributions to, this book. Thank you to the contributing authors for the time and energy dedicated to producing these chapters. Appreciation is also extended to the subject specialists who reviewed these chapters and provided invaluable comment. Gratitude goes to the MISTRA staff who contributed to the successful completion of this project: the fundraising, operations and project management teams; Wandile Ngcaweni, the project coordinator, and Keabetswe Mogosoane who assisted him; Terry Shakinovsky, who oversaw publication; Prof. Susan Booysen for her support to ensure the success of the project, and Joel Netshitenzhe for his thorough reading of the manuscript. Final thanks go to the Jacana Media publishing team and to MISTRA’s donors who make it possible to do this work.

M I S T R A F U N D E R S

Intellectual endeavours of this magnitude are not possible without financial resources. MISTRA would like to acknowledge the following donors who support the Institute and make its work possible. They include:

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