South Africa’s race-based BEE empowerment policy ‘hasn’t worked’, because instead of helping all South Africans, it has benefited only a few, says Capitec chief executive Gerrie Fourie.
Fourie said in an interview with 702: ‘If you look at BEE in totality in South Africa, it hasn’t worked because it should be there to help all South Africans and, unfortunately, it has only helped a couple of people. I think that is something we need to work on.’
‘There is also an attitude in South Africa that we need to work on that says “what can I do?” rather than (focusing on) entitlement. I think that’s quite crucial for our culture going forward.’
His comments follow Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi’s commitment to introduce harsh measures against employers who do not meet employment equity targets.
Capitec has been named the Sunday Times Top 100 Company of the Year and Fourie the Business Leader of the Year.
Fourie said that if he could give President Cyril Ramaphosa advice, it would be for South Africa to have the same objectives.
‘Each and every person in South Africa should focus on growing and creating jobs. The second one is to execute; it’s nice talking about things but the execution is critical. When you execute, you learn and you see what works. Thirdly, is let us be positive.’