South African Black Business Ownership Falls Below 30 Percent
Black ownership of businesses in South Africa has reportedly dropped below 30 percent last year, falling 1.5 percentage points as Africa’s most industrialized nation is failing to empower a larger portion of its population economically.
According to the B-BBEE Commission’s annual report obtained by Bloomberg, Black management control also dropped 5.4 percentage points to 51.6 percent. This is all despite four out of five people being Black In South Africa.
The commission’s mandate is to supervise and encourage adherence to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act passed nearly two decades ago to address inequalities stemming from apartheid in South Africa.
The new numbers are despite the more than 5– B-BBEE ownership deals worth over 600 billion rand ($36.1 billion in U.S. dollars) reported to the commission since 2017 that aimed to facilitate the transfer of ownership to Black people.
“There is a need for less-expensive and unencumbered funding for Black people to make acquisitions that can give real value in the hands of Black people, especially from government funding institutions,” the commission said, according to Bloomberg.
Annual compliance reports submitted from 130 listed companies, 82 state entities and data gathered from 1,373 entities make up the report. The commission has also called on Parliament to strengthen the B-BBEE Act to incorporate administrative sanctions for non-compliance.
Read the full main details of the report here.
