In an article entitled "Shrinking BEE stakes a cause for concern" Sibonelo Radebe of The New Age quote Ajay Lalu, a BEE Analyst saying: "Something is fundamentally wrong here....it is a worrying trend....Where did the significant portion of the money attached to this deal go? Who actually benefits from BEE deals? Someone other than the designated beneficiaries is making huge amounts of money out of an initiative designed to redress apartheid pathologies"
Mr. Lalu is further quoted as pointing a finger at the banks and the companies selling the so-called BEE stakes. His colleague Duma Gqubule, who is quoted arguing in the same article that there is no basis to the outcry that BEE deals were designed to benefit a few individuals effectively agrees with Mr. Lalu that there is something fundamentally wrong with the so called BEE.
The above two commentators are lamenting the effective checkmating of a "BEE" grouping called Dinatla that "bought" 15% shares in Bidvest in 2003. The outcry stems from the announcement that the so-called 15% stake has now shrunk to 4.5%. All one can say to Mr. Lalu, Gqubule and all the other believers in BEE is welcome to the real world brothers and sisters. In contrast Brian Joffe, in his "condolences" message is quoted as seeing things quite in a very positive light and to be saying:
"This unique BEE transaction represents more than R2bn of value realized for Dinatla. The transaction is remarkable for the scale of the value unlocked and in terms of the thousand of beneficiaries that will benefit from it".
Mr. Joffe and Mr. Gqubule, with respect both seem to be suffering from a similar disease, which I call the "Sandton syndrome", the inability to realize and separate reality from what is written in some piece of paper. They seem to believe, naively, that because a list of people's names were given to them as so called " broad based empowerment groupings or beneficiaries" those people really benefit out of these and similar deals. My advice to them is to take a drive and go and meet some of the so-called "beneficiaries".
In fact the Bidvest reporting comes at a particular interesting time when my organization, the ANC Youth League, has released a discussion document in terms of which it strengthened its call for the nationalization of the commanding heights of the South African economy. In the same document the ANCYL also allude to the "evil" and hoodwinking nature of the so called BEE in so far as it seeks to "benefit" a select few previously disadvantaged individuals,