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South Africa 2008 – How Black Economic Empowerment intersects with Xenophobia
Posted on June 02nd 2008
As of today the death toll from xenophobic attacks total 62 with 670 injured and 1,300 people arrested and an economic cost still to be determined.
As we all reflect on this unfortunate development in South Africa, one of the most positive outcomes is that an opportunity has been created for a frank and honest conversation about what it means to be African.
Apartheid is buried but the image of what it means to be South African and who is entitled to be a South African may find its roots in the construction of a colonial and subsequently an apartheid state. It is undeniable that white South Africans are as foreign to South Africa as are post apartheid black Africans.
What makes a white South African immigrant a more acceptable face of South Africa than a black African? Could one of the answers lie in the economic definition of black people as well as Africans in the various legislations that have been passed in post apartheid South Africa?
In terms of South African legislation black people is a generic term which means Africans, Indians, and Coloureds. It is accepted that the term African is restricted to indigenous people. When South Africans negotiated a settlement to end apartheid, a new definition of a South African was then agreed and crystallised.
Under this framework, white South Africans and black people who were citizens of the country prior to 1994 are the only ones who are entitled to legitimately claim to be authentic citizens in terms of BEE definition.
Accordingly, in the context of the black economic empowerment project that was framed by apartheid beneficiaries as an instrument of assimilating the black political elites, a new definition of an eligible black for economic empowerment was then coined i.e. historically disadvantaged individual (HDI) or previously disadvantaged individuals (PDI).
The constitution of South Africa was then crafted recognising the historical legacy of apartheid and the need to level the economic playing field. Both black and white political and non-political actors accepted a construction that a black immigrant is not meant to be an economic beneficiary of the post apartheid dispensation at the expense of black South African persons and notwithstanding any commitment to a pan-African project.
It can then be rationally argued that xenophobia's roots must be located in the minds of the framers of the black economic empowerment project. It would, therefore, be wrong to blame the practitioners of physical violence when the construction of the post apartheid state had in its foundation an anti-black African immigrant tone.
It can also be argued that xenophobia may not be a reflection of only the attitudes of the perpetrators of violence but a generally held view that South Africa belongs to a certain class of people and benefits of economic progress must be reserved.
Indeed, if economic power can be transferable to black elites on often non-transparent basis through so called BEE deals then it can be argued that why should the poor not be part of the deal when they all fit into the definition of PDI and HDI?
The following are some of the acts that have been passed by the post apartheid parliament dominated by the African National Congress (ANC) on which the xenophobic passion may have its roots. These include:
It provides a legislative framework for the promotion of black economic empowerment; empowers the Minister of Trade and Industry to issue codes of good practice and to publish transformation charters; to establish the Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council; and to provide for matters connected therewith. The Minister is not empowered to look after black emigrants.
Deals with beneficiation activities in the mining sector and clarifies the empowerment requirements in respect of beneficiation activities first contemplated in the Mining Charter
Relevant to the determination of the Human Resource Management criteria of the BEE Scorecard
Dealing with the Mining Charter
Dealing with the Petroleum Charter
Deals with beneficiation activities in the mining sector and clarifies the empowerment requirements in respect of beneficiation activities first contemplated in the Mining Charter. Assented to on 15 April 2006.
The South African Government procurement framework
- 8. Revenue Laws Amendment Act 32 of 2005 (second amendment)
Dealing with the tax treatment of certain forms of broad-based employee share schemes
Relevant to the determination of the Human Resource Management criteria of the BEE Scorecard
A number of regulations and charters in various sectors have been put in place reflecting the consensus that only pre-1994 black people as defined ought to share the economic spoils of South Africa to the exclusion of black emigrants. This view is not held only at the lower end of the economic spectrum but is a shared one among black and whites.
In the post apartheid Africa, it has now been accepted that there are two Africas i.e. South Africa and the rest of Africa. In South Africa, it is now an economic and legislative imperative to empower black persons. However, the untapped resources of the rest of the continent are regarded as fair game for the reconfigured/empowered South African enterprises with no policy on empowering the rest of the black Africans.
At the continental level, there is no conversation about the need for pan African empowerment charter. The absurd development is that South African capital is now being exported on a tricky foundation that is premised on the notion that empowering the pre-1994 blacks is a necessary and sufficient condition for economically colonising the rest of the continent.
Although the decolonisation project was prosecuted on the basis that an injury to one black person was an injury to all, the post apartheid empowerment project is reserved to black persons as defined. Some may legitimately ask how a movement like ANC with its commitment to the pan African project could end up being the architect of a new Africa that makes black Africans born outside the perimeters of the country be less African than their white and Indian colleagues.
The heritage of South Africa can only confer benefits to black people as defined ignoring the consequences of the Berlin Conference of 1885 that split the continent into convenient economic units that separated brothers and sisters depending on who was privileged to be the master.
What would be the consequences if other countries in Africa were to adopt the same attitude that only their indigenous people should benefit? In the case of South Africa, the xenophobic sentiment resonates with many white people who genuinely believe that they have a better claim on South Africa than their fellow black immigrants.
It has been argued that the recent xenophobic attacks were motivated by President Mbeki's stance on Zimbabwe. A proposition has been made that white and black Zimbabweans anxious for change may have invested in the xenophobic project as a way of encouraging Zimbabweans living in South Africa to return to Zimbabwe and vote as well exposing his alleged hypocrisy.
The anger expressed by black South Africans was as predictable as the consequences of a superficial empowerment process. It is clear that South Africa through its various laws has accepted that it is a different African country and black Africans have to take note and plan accordingly.
White South Africans have argued that the country is an attractive destination for black Africans after 52 years of uhuru precisely because they made it happen. They feel vindicated that Africa will never be a viable project without their intervention and control.
If black Africans can in their millions run away from the anti-imperialist legend, President Mugabe, then it is argued that this is enough evidence supporting the deeply held view that Africans cannot self and were not ready for independence.
The framers of the colonial state justified the denial of civil and economic rights to black Africans on the basis that they had brought the civilisation that created the state as an institution and to the extent that they gave themselves credit for entrepreneurship that then funded the state, they maintained that they were entitled to exclusively benefit from the fruits of the initiative.
However, in accepting BEE, a new language has been created in South Africa and is supported by law that being a pre-1994 black person one has an entitlement to extract from whites part of what they accumulated during the colonial and apartheid eras.
It must accept that if apartheid South Africa had been governed the same way that for example Zimbabwe has been governed, then surely the influx of black Zimbabweans would be unthinkable. What is not deniable for example is that the estimated 3 million Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa are critical drivers of economic growth and they do contribute to the fiscus.
Unlike their white immigrants, black Zimbabweans have failed to invest in being South African in as much as whites have done. Indeed, it would be unthinkable for a black Zimbabwean born South African to aspire to be a Mayor of Cape Town in post apartheid South Africa, for example, in as much as Mayor Helen Zille has done without attracting xenophobic attacks.
Having lived and worked in South Africa for the past 13 years, I also came to the conclusion that it is important to be part of the solution than be part of the problem. I acquired South African citizenship not because Zimbabwean citizenship is inferior but because I am an economic contributor to the South African project in as much as any other immigrant.
If Indians and whites can be accepted as South Africans then surely it cannot and should not the case that Zimbabwean born persons like us should apologise for being part of the South African story.
Recognising that when English people came to South Africa they saw the need of creating an Old Mutual in 1845 to serve their interests and the Afrikaners followed suit in 1928 by creating Sanlam, I am proud to say that I was one of the founding members of Africa Heritage Society (AHS), on the same principles of mutuality that underpinned Old Mutual and Sanlam with the only difference that we do not hold the same racists views that informed the colonial state.
As a member of AHS, I believe strongly that it is important that we begin to engage in conversations about what kind of Africa we want to see. Should we have a black only Africa? Should we have an empowered South Africa only with its empowered companies exporting the model to the rest of the continent? Who is an African? Who should benefit from Africa's resources? Is the South African BEE related legislation consistent with the values of pan Africanism? What would be the implications on Africa's growth and transformation if other African countries were to cut and paste the South African empowerment legislation and enact similar laws in their countries?
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Well said mukoma Mawere. Thank you for your contributions to the PAN-African project. I just hope as Africans we will be able the put our houses in order and take charge of our own destinies without prejudicing one another. I didn't even know that BEE is specifically for a certain black SA class, I thought it was open to all as long as you have citizenship.
i have been reading most of your articles and i thank you for your tireless work that you are doing in trying to enlighten what most of our brothers and sisters cant see,i find it very disturbing to find a black african burning another black african for whatever reason i think the african leaders should take a stand and condem this strongly ..i have been in europe for five years now and all what i see is the white europeans taking care of each their borders are open and it pains ma heart that why cant we do the same why cant we remove those borders which were put by the white man and be one people and work for the development of our continent ..the PAN-African project is the only way forward ..i hope we will start to behave like a people and improve our own lives ..m not educated or own anything but as a displaced zimbabwean i know my motherland AFRICA is rich in everythin and one day we should all benefit from it ..
There is mothing brilliant in this work. What Mawere did not say, which he knows is that these thugs who butchered fellow Africans did so with futile hope that they were beating Zimbabweans whom they wanted to vote in ZW. Sadly, the plan did not work as we ended up seeing Vendas being beaten too! The old foes plan and did all this dirty work. Hapana chekuvanza apa!
South Africa is for South Africans, Nigeria for Nigerians, Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans and we are all Africans. Citizenship can be determined or characterized through bio-social, geo-political or economic material inclinations as particularized by any personage. To be able to discuss our african-ness and xenophobia is to competently probe the conflicts of certain classes of society on the meaning of nationality as given by bio-social fundamentals (We are and hold where/who we are by birth and culture) and the geo-political analogue (we are and hold where/who we are by liberation struggle) as well as the antagonism of material economic interests (we are and hold where/who we are by contribution to society). The disproportionate contest for national wealth by classes of society is the foundation of apprehension. National wealth embraces among others, employment capacity, land tenure and mineral resources extraction. SA’s relation to Africa can only be vital to Pan Africanism if the continent economically advance at the same pace as its southern nation. Given the continent of Americas and its northern nation, USA, the people of south-central Latin America today perish like flies trying to cross the Mexican borders and deep oceans in search for sub-citizen economic immigrant life within their continent in North America. Their Pan American dream has been reduced to sloganeering America for Americans only if North America has some economic interests with the rest of the Americas. While xenophobic attacks are the worst ever to be prompted by fellow Africans, it is imperative to envisage the path ahead if we are to develop South Africa alone and forget the rest of our continent. To what extend does pan Africanism influence the integration of fellow Africans in one state while ignoring other parts of the continent? Is it necessary upon ourselves to fight intra-continental migration than to acknowledge and treasure where we come from within Africa? I am Mhofu from the Vuhera people who had a kingdom in Nyashanu (Manicaland) that spread to Seke (Harare), Chiwashira (Chivhu), Mapanzure Gapare (Masvingo), Mpofu the abducted son of Eland (Bulawayo), Chiweshe Muzezuru, Makiwa (Mberengwa) and I can go on and on and spread the tentacles of whom I am across Zimbabwe! If I claim to be South African or non-Zimbabwean therefore, will I be serving my generation according to the moral honesty and obligation of whom we are? It is incumbent upon this generation to develop ways of life existence as given them by predecessor generations. I humbly find it immoral to jump and distort one’s history to his/her offspring and generations to come in an attempt to fill one’s stomach through economic immigration. Instead of envying being another “Zille” let us desire our children to be mayors of new cities we must build in Zimbabwe. Migration that is extremely beyond one’s control like the colonial forced labor abductions of MTANDAZO from Malawi and Zambia to Zimbabwe must be welcomed by the very Pan Africanist views of integration. For those who wish to be assisted to go back to their history after forced migration must be accorded their wishes. Many Africans from our region perished in the gold mines in South Africa and today are not part of any history to talk about with regards to developing industrialised apartheid south africa for their deliberate migration cannot pass the moral principles of a Pan African edifice. We only remember the gallant sons who have gone to sacrifice their lives for the liberation of the region and continent. Let us not imitate the inter-continental economic migration of non Africans to Africa for very soon history will be corrected. Most of our able nationals who have gone to the Diaspora in search for true freedom (living) have their dreams shattered for they have been followed by their biological, social, geological and political belonging. The minority of us who have made loads of money from here and are in the big cities of England, New York and Jo’burg are fighting a nervous desease called homesickness. If it is OK to just pick any country for citizenship why do we become homesick then? The Zimbabwean-ness in us must assist in molding our characters as we interact with fellow nationals especially the governing authorities of the day. We can not be independent from mistakes of government for we are the one who put those governments in our country thus, it is important to work for solutions than tearing each other apart at the amusement of other nations. We are in the midst of a decade of immorality as Zimbabweans that is why we find it mentally un-perturbing to be non-Zimbabweans. Let us empower Pan Africanism by contributing towards our places of origins and improve communities of those we owe our life to in the remote villages of our motherland. Africa Heritage Society (AHS) is a manifestation of brilliance, thank you.
If you were not a capitalist and happen to write this opinion peace, it would have been more respectable and objective. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with capitalism, in my view, as long as we, as Afrikans define our own and stop emulating the western capitalism which is deeply entrenched in selfishness, crass materialism and individualism. I hope there are many Afrikans, especially in your part of the world, that have directly benefited from your amassed wealth. And most importantly, I hope this is one of your underlying business values (uncompromisingly giving back to the needy and marginalised communities).
As you would know (at least I hope), that the unification of this continent and Afrikan people in general is our greatest challenge ever. This can be attributed to the balkanization of our continent by the colonial monsters. If indeed this is the case, it would seem to me that your superficial and rather opportunistic suggestion that South Africa’s BEE legislation has xenophobic undertones not only supports the popular view amongst the Pan-Afrikanists that the so-called “back” bourgeoisie are only concerned about entrenching their ivory towers as opposed to be in the vanguard for the economic and intellectual development of the Afrikan peoples. It also serves as a proof thereof.
There is a lot to be picked from your article, in particular they way BEE was structured is interesting but I doubt that it would have been politically sustainable for the ANC to open up the gates of BEE to every African. The issue I think is to create African countries that function like South Africa and not break down the economy as soon as the country attains majority rule which I think is what has been happening. Allowing other Africans to benefit from BEE could also create greater opportunities for fronting, which is already a serious issue. The South African government is aware that there is a skills shortage here. If BEE was a free for all Africans guess who would be the greatest beneficiaries? Zimbabwe and its citizens in my opinion because of the training and skills base we had. The economy would move out from whites to Zimbabweans. One elite to another. BEE and its many variants across the continent will never be able to redistribute wealth as much as the policy seems able to do in fancy air conditioned hotel conference rooms. Lets just accept what on the ground and move on, be the change that you want to see IN YOUR COUNTRY.
For those of us who like you have decided to set us businesses here, if you came early enough to benefit from BEE good for you. If you didnt face up to the challenge and make it work. At the end of the day if your business has real cashflow not the dreams in your business plan you will be supported by banks investors and the like. One thing is certain in this life, money follows value, not good ideas, just value. If one is unable to find money your good idea lacks value.
Lastly I agree that BEE could have been structured better but I want to remind you all that Africa as a continent is a very different levels of development economically but more importantly politically. There are several initiatives that are being needlessly duplicated and because of the lack of political maturity little can be done about. Imagine the savings if every African nation with a postal system that works was to implement ENATIS and not its own version of traffic information system but its not yet politically feasible. THATS IT. Its the same reason that the MDC has never been able to get support from other leaders openly, the maturity of African politics is pre 17th century Europe. We are still far off, that why only Mwanawasa out of all SADC leaders has been able to speak up on Zimbabwe and 2008 is the first time that the MDC has heard real audience with African Leaders after more than 8 years of singing fron the same hym book. Its only a matter of time.
Mutumwa Dziva Mawere (born January 11, 1960 in Bindura, Zimbabwe), is an African business executive, pioneer, financier, banker and entrepreneur best known as the founder and Chairman of Africa Resources Limited ("ARL"). He is known for having built one of the most powerful and influential corporations in Zimbabwe's history
Thank Mr Mawere for such a brilliant observation. I have always said you are one of the few brightest people we have.One problem we have be it in Zimbabwe or elsewhere in Africa is that we (The elite) are so much dis engaged in the affiars of the average people.Our educated forks who speak English form the left, right and centre are usually so much into terms and technocratic words.
These sholars of distinction can only talk to themseveles leaving the majority of us without a clue. Its just like our online mediums, we have people who can only display the use of jaggon and big terms.How many Zimbabweans will benefit form such recklessness display of English poet and skill?
In our minds we are so much colonised that we are cannot talk to average people. By so doing, there is always a gap. Take for instance Thabo Mbeki. A brilliant scholar but does not connect with his own village people. People do not care how educated we can be, all they want food on their tables.That is why the war vetts got frustrated.And that is why poor South Africans are on the rampage.
For me, I am sad to see our own people being successful in failure. Thank Iam also a blogger at www.ikhonaindaba.blogspot.com