ALAN PEAT THE CURRENT method of achieving enterprise development is not true black economic empowerment, according to Thabo Hlongwane, a director of Landwave Air and Sea. “In our case, my partner Sam Pei and I started our own company,” he told FTW. “It was not just a black-owned company that we jumped in on. “We started doing business together, and are now very strong in the Far East and Brazil and other parts of South America.” But, he added, if someone just buys a company, it doesn’t serve the people. “For actual development I don’t think that this rates,” Hlongwane said. “It’s just fronting – just window dressing.” The true method is to do business together equally – with each director having to be actually involved in running the business, know what they are talking about, and actually be able to do it. “Instead of just employing a black face, each director must bring something into the company, and add value,” Hlongwane added. “He can’t just stand there and be the appropriate black face in the photograph.” If someone just buys into a company, that’s not adding anything, according to Hlongwane’s thinking. “It might be appropriate for these companies to get better scoring for BEE, but it’s only short-term,” he said. “It’s not sustainable in the long-term.” And he questions how the current scorecard system can be properly policed. “On paper this scorecard is very good,” said Hlongwane, “but people manipulate it for their own good. “That’s not what was intended in the original BEE concept.”
