Johannesburg - South Africans own a meagre 1.6% or R81bn of the JSE's value, which stands at R5.2 trillion, according to empowerment ratings agency Empowerdex.
This amount is the debt-free portion of the total black ownership of the exchange that stands at 5.75%.
Chia-Chao Wu, Empowerdex executive deputy chairperson, said direct ownership was an accurate gauge of black participation in the JSE.
"We believe that measuring direct participation, even if it is represented by just one person buying 100 shares in a company for their own account, is a more relevant indicator of the economic participation of black people in the South African economy."
Wu's comments came after research by trade union Solidarity suggested that black people owned 23% of the country's premier stock market.
Solidarity's South African Transformation Monitor concluded that black ownership of the JSE had jumped to a "remarkable" 23% in 2008 from roughly 5% in 1995.
Wu said Solidarity's measurement of black ownership was inaccurate because it was based on indirect ownership, which takes into account JSE investments held by blacks through pension funds, unit trusts, medical schemes and insurance policies.
Wu believed indirect ownership effectively disempowered black investors and therefore could not be used as an accurate indicator of their participation in the economy.
"The policyholders and unit trust holders have little or no say in the direction of the companies they are 'invested in' and often have no right (and no interest) to even attend the annual general meetings of the shareholders.
"The policyholders have no voting rights and don?t benefit from any upswing or suffer the losses of any downswing in the market," Wu said.
Empowerdex estimated that since 1994 black economic empowerment (BEE) deals worth R359.6bn, financed mainly through debt, had been concluded at the JSE level.
However, the current value of BEE stakes had declined to R300.9bn, representing about 5.75% of the JSE's R5.2 trillion market capitalisation.
Solidarity's study also struck a raw nerve with the trade and industry department, which is responsible for enforcing BEE policies.
The department's BEE chief director, Nomonde Mesatywa, expressed surprise that Solidarity had focused on indirect ownership in its study, which showed that black indirect ownership was still short of the government's target of 40%.
"The actual direct ownership in JSE-listed companies is still encumbered (it has debt). Therefore it is premature to suggest that the implementation of BEE has contributed more to the development and promotion of a black middle class than is recognised," she said.
Industrial Development Corporation chief economist Lumkile Mondi said the plight of blacks on the JSE would take a long time to correct and black entrepreneurs needed to find fresh ways of being in big business.
"A lot of the black ownership on the JSE is saddled with debt. As long as blacks do not have capital it is going to be a long battle for them to catch up with their white counterparts."
Mondi suggested that blacks needed to enter into new industries such as renewable energy, where the playing field was level.
"It is going to be very difficult to compete in old industries like mining where there are established interests that block everything. South African blacks have skills and should look elsewhere for opportunities, in places like Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Uganda," he said.
Michelle Joubert, the JSE's head of investor relations, said the exchange did not monitor black ownership.
"We provide a marketplace for all shareholders, be they black or white, domestic or international," she said.
Following its study, Solidarity - which has a predominantly white membership - appeared to be arguing that a debate on when to phase out the BEE and affirmative action policies needed to be opened since black ownership of the South African economy had substantially increased.
"Central to this question stands Solidarity's realisation that BEE shouldn't continue longer than is necessary and rational," the union said.
"It is therefore important that black advancement be measured in a responsible and factual manner in order to constantly deal with the question of when special measures (affirmative action and BEE) should be phased out or stopped."
- City Press