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Should he have not rather asked how long it will take to get out of the trouble BEE has put us in?
Addressing inequity is essential, but South Africa's rapid, even angry way of approaching the wrongs apartheid created in business has created considerable problems.
Most of all, it has not done what it promised to do - open the doors of opportunity to all.
We have become obsessed with numbers and not expertise. We care much more about how many people sit on boards than the more important figures of how many new jobs have been created. How good are our products or services?
There are few incentives for white or coloured people to be excellent. We have become quota-obsessed and while it has put more black people and women in positions of influence, few have seen fit to show responsibility to the communities they come from.
At least the Broederbond took deliberate and effective strategies to help poor white Afrikaners.
Skewed
Research organisation BusinessMap Foundation estimates that 173 empowerment deals, worth R75bn, were concluded in 2006, while R225bn worth of BEE transactions since 1994 helped create some of the South Africa's 50 000 dollar millionaires.
But the Human Sciences Research Council tells us that 54% of South Africans live in poverty.
StatsSA records that unemployment is 40% (Iraq at 60% unemployment is one of the few countries with worse statistics).
The South African Institute of Race Relations say 20.5 million people in South Africa still live on less than R3 000 a year.
Having a third of parliamentarians as women has not seen greater attention to women's issues; if anything, the rates of violence and chauvinism are worsening.
Women parliamentarians are more interested in what the party boss has to say: with proportional representation it is he who determines their future employment, not the voter.
I would question Coulson's assertion that BEE "is essential to the survival of a free enterprise economy in SA". Five years after the enactment of the Black Economic Empowerment Act we need to urgently revisit and assess it. These are some of the things we need to consider:
- In 1994, it was predicted that South Africa would need 235 000 managers by 2000 - but that was at a growth rate of 1 to 2%; with economic growth rates double that, the economy has failed to grow good managers quickly enough.
- Targets set by legislation have proved impossible. The code demands 70% procurement from BEE-compliant companies, 60% black people and 30% women in senior management, 5% of staff in learnership and 3% on payroll.
- Gauteng demands 85% of procurement from BBBEE-compliant companies. Its targets for 2009 are 80% black people and 40% black women in senior management, 4% of people with disabilities, 8% of staff in learnerships, 2% of payroll spent on skills development per annum.
It's about skill
The greatest problem is in the last figure. The World Bank's Investment Climate Survey shows that South Africa trains only 44.6% of skilled workers, compared to 77.3% of skilled workers receiving ongoing training in Brazil, 69.1% in China, 55% in India and 78.9% in Poland.
We have demands about how many people should be at the top but we come off a low base of dreadfully inept apartheid education in black schools. If anything, that has deteriorated since democracy. Last year 200 000 - or half of all matriculants - failed and the minister of education still has a job.
In 2007, the Irish government said an additional half a million workers (it presently has 1.8 million workers) will need to progress by "at least" one level of educational attainment above their current highest level by 2020.
It means that every Irish company that wants to stay ahead of the global economy must have significant training budgets. No wonder it is the second wealthiest country in the world.
Skills set appropriate?
In 2004, StatsSA reported that there were 60 000 unemployed graduates; by 2006, that figure had jumped to 200 000.
Tsogo Sun CEO Jabu Mabuza last year told young accountants: "HR people are spoilt for choice. There are so many people looking for work. Having a degree doesn't mean you can do the job; all that it says is that a person can complete an assignment."
And that's part of the problem: your average four-year-old today is far more technologically savvy than the average 40-year-old, yet we still have teachers without degrees, without expertise in higher-grade maths or science and all teaching theory whether at school or university.
The education system is not appropriate for a skills-hungry 21st century.
Obsessive quotas mean that too many talented white or brown children can't get work and, as The Economist Intelligence Unit observes: "Talent is the new oil."
There are no borders for the talented or those in essential services which is why we have almost more South African nurses working in the Middle East and Europe than in South Africa.
South Africa has the world's highest brain drain and worst skills shortages of 55 countries studied and its productivity is plummeting, according to Productivity SA and the 2007 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.
We ranked last on infrastructure, internet costs, health problems, availability of qualified engineers and life expectancy. Our top rating for electricity to industry is likely to plummet this year.
Overstretched staff, a lack of training and poor management saw productivity ratings plunge after a decade of sustained growth - last year SA fell from 38th to 50th out of 55 countries.
It says SA has among the world's most severe shortages of those with finance skills and senior management competence ranking 52nd and 51st respectively.
It says South Africa's economic performance competitiveness dropped from 40th in 2006 to 54th in 2007, high unemployment and low GDP per capita.
Construction, which according to the department of finance is the strongest-growing sector of the economy at an annual average rate of 12.1 % over 2004-2006), compared to only 2.8 % in the preceding decade (1994-2003) can barely meet half of its skills needs (45%) which holds serious ramifications for the massive amount of construction on the cards.
Wages are good - salary increases averaged 8% in 2007 in South Africa according to PE Corporate Services - but people are job-hopping more with skilled staff turnover averaging 17% per year and 14% for other categories of employees.
All of these add costs and ensure that those employed are not staying in a job long enough to become really expert.
When are we going to get serious about social justice and economic growth?
The real story is not how many dark or female faces are at the top; excellence, effectiveness and the sustainability of economic development should be what drives us.
There are enough black people and women at the top now to start showing responsibility to their own. But job creation is what should drive us now without that a truly globally competitive nation will not happen.
- Fin24.com
