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ARTICLE · 17 SEPTEMBER 2004

Beware The Bogeyman

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
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Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

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The macro-economic rationale that lies at the heart of black economic empowerment (BEE) is to address the widespread disparities of ownership of productive assets, participation in the economy and skewed social welfare by means of state intervention.

South AfricaEmployment and HR
Brent Williams
Brent Williams

The macro-economic rationale that lies at the heart of black economic empowerment (BEE) is to address the widespread disparities of ownership of productive assets, participation in the economy and skewed social welfare by means of state intervention. However, the economic realities of the targeted beneficiaries of BEE provide the most fundamental challenge to the implementation of broad-based economic empowerment.

One of the most significant difficulties is the funding of transactions designed to achieve targeted levels of black ownership, within the meaning of the Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003. And, if truth be told, the more broadly based the putative black acquirers are, within the meaning of that Act, the more chronic is the lack of funding or access thereto.

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