According to the DTI Document on Economic Empowerment the weighting points assigned for ownership, all levels of management and board participation are clearly set out for black employees.
But, if you happen to be a black female you have an additional special set of weighting points to add to the calculation of a BEE scorecard.
This presents business with a dilemma in that certain industries fail to attract these black female diamonds as the salary that they offer is not to the expectations of these rare creatures. So a compromise happens, black females are fast tracked into senior positions, given heaps of share options and have the real work farmed out to additional staff.
Savvy black females play one business off on the other knowing full well that their exhalted status is the prize and not really their superior ability.
This causes resentment and an attitude of “I don’t give a rats behind” from formerly loyal employees.
I would venture to say that BEE could also be a driver toward resentment and maybe even the ongoing increasing culture of violence towards black females – they have become objects to be traded from business to business, almost a form of government sanctioned financial rape.
But, the real crisis is one of diminished patriotism (it is not patriotic to force business of South Africa to pay ever increasing sums of money to right the wrongs of the past with no end goal in sight) and the promotion of a society based on entitlement (imagine what the children of theses highly paid women think?).
What is next? Extra weighting for black female employees who carry the right political affiliation?
I wonder how much extra the Free State Government would have paid for their R40 Million Web Site if a black female had secured the tender?
About Alan Straton
