PEOPLE who are against black empowerment need to have their heads examined.
This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
He told members of Parliament on Tuesday, 27 May, he was surprised that there are still people bashing Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and saying it is holding the country back.
FF Plus leader Corne Mulder asked if Ramaphosa and other members of the Government of National Unity (GNU) are prepared to develop a new economic policy to replace BEE, which has failed to bring economic growth.
"I'm rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of black economic empowerment militate against economic growth. That I find quite surprising because I work from the starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past," he said.
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Ramaphosa reminded Mulder that those racist policies prevented the majority of South Africans to play a meaningful economic role in the country.
"Black people were brought in as hewers of wood and drawers of water. They were only brought in as labourers. They were not even seen as consumers nor active players in the economic landscape of our country," he said.
He pointed out that the democratic government seeks to open and broaden up the economy and economic participation.
Ramaphosa said those who would want black people only to play the consumer are mistaken.
"Black people must play a productive role as well. I'm really baffled by people who still hanker for policies of the past. To have you Sir (Mulder) saying black economic empowerment is holding our economy back goes completely against even what the World Bank says.
"A few years ago, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund came up with a report that one of the things that holds South Africa's economy back from growth is the level of concentration. They said ownership of the economy is in far too few hands," he said.
Ramaphosa said in Mzansi, it's privileged white people who continued to the own means of production.
He said what government seeks to do is redress imbalances of the past.
"I can tell you Dr Mulder, there's nothing that gives our people joy, particularly black people, as they go around and find that this production facility is owned by a black person.
"It warms one's heart. It makes us feel so good because we've come from a horrible past when that was not allowed by law. People were arrested for wanting to set up an economic facility in town."
Ramaphosa said he was baffled by what those against the policy want.
"Why can't black people be made to own productive aspects of our economy. Why can't they be rich as well? That is what needs to happen," he said.
Ramaphosa said Afrikaners were enabled by apartheid laws and the sweet deals they were given to become economic role players.
"Why can't the same be done for black people. This baffles me. I just don't understand it because, to me, that is the normal thing to do."
