Columnist Stuart Theobald (“A 3% shortcut to BEE compliance — smart incentive or costly loophole?”, October 8) is correct, the proposed 3% shortcut to Level 3 compliance is just a stealth tax that further punishes businesses, rather than getting to the root of the country’s problem.
BEE has never empowered ordinary black South Africans. It has enriched a politically connected elite, burdened businesses with red tape, and disincentivised growth and job creation.
Theobald is also right that this proposed levy would punish low-margin businesses and reward only those that can afford to pay their way out of compliance. But this is not an isolated flaw. It is the natural consequence of a policy built on coercion and political favour rather than merit and market logic.
The idea that transformation can be bought, whether through equity transfers or a new tax masquerading as empowerment, reveals the moral bankruptcy of the system. Real empowerment does not come from redistributing shares or creating bureaucratic funds. It comes from dismantling barriers to entrepreneurship, improving education, securing property rights and ensuring that anyone, regardless of race, can start a business and hire others without government interference.
Theobald’s warning should not be treated as a call to fix BEE, but as proof that it cannot be fixed. Every iteration, from ownership quotas to levies, produces the same result: corruption, inefficiency and exclusion. SA’s future depends on freeing its economy from racial regulation altogether.
It is time to abolish BEE, not tweak it. Not rebrand it, but end it, and replace it with a system that rewards competence, hard work and innovation. Only then will we see real transformation, not just more bureaucratic schemes dressed in moral language.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
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