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Ramaphosa admits state's BEE limitations

Cape Town - One of the key goals of the national development plan (NDP) is to create 11 million jobs and grow the economy by 2030 through mass economic and cultural redress including land form, employment equity and black economic empowerment, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said in parliament on Wednesday.

ANC MP JL Mahlangu asked, in view of the NDP for which Ramaphosa is now responsible, what programmes have been initiated by government to broaden economic opportunities for black people in particular.

Ramaphosa said: “Mass economic and cultural redress must be effected. This would include land restitution and redistribution, employment equity and black economic empowerment and the production of stories that facilitate healing, nation building and dialogue”.

Government initiatives to promote economic growth include supporting local suppliers for the government’s R1trn infrastructure programme, the proclamation of three special economic zones and a variety of investment projects.

Asked what plans are in place to ensure that the private sector contributes to nation-building and social cohesion, Ramaphosa said the national planning commission and its secretariat “are talking to business and civil society about uniting behind the NDP”.

But in reply to questions about the Marikana mine massacre tragedy, Ramaphosa was candid about the limitations of the black economic empowerment policies of government.

He said “a number of companies” in the private sector had not lived up to the provisions of the mining charter, which has set targets for economic transformation of South Africa’s mining sector.

“The mining charter … has not been fully implemented. Those who have participated in BEE transactions have in a number of ways sought to push the agenda of transformation… in large measure we often find that because they (the BEE components of business) are a minority player in the corporations … it does take a long time (to reach the empowerment goals) … to effect the change we would all like to see.”

He said the government was committed “to force transformation in this (mining) industry and many other industries”.

The mining sector charter requires private sector companies to achieve specific black equity ownership, black and female management and other social obligation goals. Meeting the charter’s targets is a condition for obtaining mining licences in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

 - Fin24
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