The racially-constituted workplaces of South Africa under apartheid have been identified as obstacles to better industrial performance since the mid-1990s. The Department of Trade and Industry’s 2003 strategy identifies ‘Black Economic Empowerment’ (BEE) as being broadbased, inclusive, and...

South Africa’s policy of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is intended to alleviate the racially determined disparities in the distribution of the country’s wealth and income. It aims at increasing the participation of black South Africans in the formal private sector economy: more black...

The policies relating to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in South Africa constitute a logical unfolding of a strategy which has been largely dictated by the history of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the nature of the democratic settlement of 1994, and the structure of the South...

Economic and social transformation of post apartheid South Africa has been a central goal for the democratic regime but broad empowerment of the majority of black South Africans is yet to take place. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) have been recognized as central for economic growth...

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has been a major policy thrust of the democratic governments in South Africa since 1994 in attempting to redress the effects of apartheid. This paper explores the historical precedents to BEE in South Africa, its origins, and its points of contact with the...

In November 2003, the South African wine industry held its first consultative conference on ‘Black Empowerment’. The press reported to the world that the industry was at last entering ‘the new South Africa’. For years, it had been a byword for white power and black exploitation –...

Redistributive processes do not belong to the pantheon of Neo-liberalism. In this framework, inequality of resources can only be addressed by equality of opportunity. Even in ‘softer’ impersonations of Neo-liberalism, corporate (mis)behaviour is tamed by corporate social responsibility, not...

The Independence of Namibia came about in 1990 as the result of a negotiated decolonisation process. The controlled change implied a perpetuation of the existing socio-economic inequalities under the former liberation movement as the new government. The country’s constitution endorsed the...

It can be argued that just as there are different kinds of literacy, there are different kinds of illiteracy. A proximate illiterate, i.e. an illiterate who has easy access to a literate person, is clearly better off than someone without such access. The existing literature that takes account of...