Johannesburg - Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) cannot speed up economic growth as it favours the politically connected, Solidarity said on Monday.
"According to the true measure of wealth - access to goods and services - almost all South Africans, including black people, are poorer thanks to BEE," said Piet le Roux, researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI).
It could not speed up economic growth, reduce inequality or achieve general black empowerment.
"The only winner in this process is the politically favoured black elite and other people (including white, coloured and Indian) who manage to exploit this artificial system."
In the SRI's quarterly labour market report released on Monday, Le Roux said BEE had achieved the opposite of what it was designed to achieve.
"In fact, it slowed the pace of economic growth as well as the evenness - also in terms of race categories - with which economic wealth spread in society," he said.
Since the adoption of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill in 2003, BEE's main goal had been the redistribution of capital according to artificial, political aims, at the expense of consumers, he said.