How has Africa succeeded in putting its traumatic racial discrimination past behind it? Speak to any businessman doing business in Africa and they will tell you, that ‘race' is not an issue. They will tell you that doing business is not impeded by requirements to have ‘black' partners and that the concept of ‘previously disadvantaged people' does not exist!
Choosing your business partner is based on rational and sound decisions, such as their knowledge of the needs and desires of the local population, rather than the colour of their skin. Employers are free to employ whosoever they choose, and there are no ‘racial quotas' that need to be met.
There are no onerous ‘compliance' issues, which require companies to report on the racial mix of each level of employee and there are no fines for failure to comply. There are no ‘good governance' requirements which require consultants and compliance bodies to vet compliance by companies. Sure there is corruption, but corruption is endemic everywhere in Africa and is not exclusive to Africa.
It may even be worse in South Africa, because the very structure of ‘empowerment' is prone to abuse. Empowerment requires, ‘subjective' factors, such as BBEEE scores, to be considered before awarding contracts. ‘Objective' criteria such as the cheapest price, or the quality of the product or the ability to perform the task on time are put aside, while insidious political considerations take precedence.
Until recently, no special consideration was granted to locally manufactured products, until the DTI woke up, 17 years too late to save South Africa's manufacturing industry, which shrank from 25% of our GNP to about 10%. That is what happens when central planners, mostly with communist world views, and no business experience, plan and run an economy.
The DTI previously could not conceptualise that locally made products, were produced using local labour, because their incentive schemes were more orientated to ‘ownership'. They were more focused on the racial make-up of the enterprise's ownership. So a black owned enterprise importing goods from China, would be a preferred bidder against a ‘white' owned local manufacturer.