OPINION: SA still one of the most unequal countries JOHANNESBURG – Twenty-four years into our democracy and 15 years after the enactment of B-BBEE legislation, South Africa is still one of the most unequal societies in the world. The National Development Plan lists noble objectives such as the reduction of the Gini coefficient measure of…
OPINION: Buy local, from small business should be a collective effort JOHANNESBURG – The Insert by Proudly SA’s chief executive, Eustace Mashimbye (Business Report Opinion&Analysis, April 10) laments the high failure rate of SMMEs and rightly identifies market access as the solution. It goes on to mention Proudly SA’s efforts to drive market access for…
OPINION: The BEE codes are inhibiting SA’s SME development JOHANNESBURG – The American sociologist, Robert K Merton, popularised the term “unintended consequences” in 1936 with his paper “the unanticipated consequences of Purposive Social Action”. He sought to demonstrate that government actions aimed at bringing social change will always bring unintended consequences. There are three categories…
OPINION: From incubation to the very end JOHANNESBURG – One of my April columns concerned the high failure rate of SMMEs and gave some of the reasons why small enterprises are unable to thrive. The column went on to talk about some of the developmental programmes available to entrepreneurs and SMMEs and also touched on…
OPINION: Prioritise policy certainty over slogans, rhetoric JOHANNESBURG – Enough already with empty slogans and dancing at political rallies, they have done nothing for the country. We need clear short-term and long-term objectives backed by action plans. Unemployed youths, who mostly have matric, still have the likelihood of learning new skills and least require state…
OPINION: YouthDay: Grown-ups not doing a good job of creating jobs JOHANNESBURG – Apparently, George Bernard Shaw, when asked what he considered most beautiful, replied: “Youth is the most beautiful thing in the world what a pity that it has to be wasted on children!” It gave rise to the saying “Youth is wasted on…
OPINION: The new, new BEE amendments: be careful what you wish for JOHANNESBURG – The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) has really done it this time, gazetting two separate controversial draft amendments to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Codes of Good Practice in the space of three months. The 1st amendmentThe first proposed…
OPINION: Promise of gold can only be kept through BEE and transformation JOHANNESBURG – Eight of the 15 members of Standard Bank’s executive committee are black Africans. They occupy critical executive posts including group chief executives and chief executives of African regions; corporate and investment banks; Standard Bank South Africa, as well as personal and…
OPINION: If we’re repeating history, focus on success JOHANNESBURG – ‘What do we see about us today? Restless and feverish attempts in all directions to create a dissension among the people; to incite one race against the other in irreconcilable aversion and hate towards each other; to exploit our cultural possessions, our language and our…