Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Businessman Richard Maponya criticised the government and black economic empowerment in an interview published in the Sowetan on Monday.
"It [BEE] is not a real thing because it takes away the self-initiative needed from young and up and coming entrepreneurs who must wake up and want to do the things themselves," he said at the sixth birthday celebrations of Maponya Mall in Soweto on Friday.
He said broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) was a good idea in principle, but in practice it did not always work.
"I really blame our government for the economic situation because we are nearly 20 years into our new dispensation but we have not come up with a bank that would give people a risk fund."
He also said black and white business needed to unite, but added that white business people and foreigners should not be allowed to dominate business in townships.
"Soweto has suddenly become a place where white business people want to do business, when small entrepreneurs of the area should be given an opportunity to own business here," said Maponya.
