Last week, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said that abandoning BEE policy would be the equivalent of returning to apartheid. It wouldn’t, but nor does the policy need to be abandoned, as there are ways to amend it to ensure that it achieves what it should.

Mr Mashatile’s comment is an example of the kind of stubbornness that has placed his party at odds both with the views of its own supporters and with the reality of South Africa’s economic position.

A point of great danger for any political party is when public opinion overtakes the party leadership in terms of the ideas according to which a society should be run. Mr Mashatile ignores that 7 out of 10 ANC voters believe “a business should operate freely, regardless of whether it is black or white-owned, so long as it pays tax and helps create employment”.

Research earlier this year showed that approximately 100 individuals have split almost a trillion rand of BEE windfalls between them. Read against South Africa’s low investment and growth rates and its high unemployment rate, it is no surprise that a strong majority of people in the country do not believe that the policy should be enforced on businesses – as long as these pay tax and create jobs.

What should be done?

At this newspaper, we think public opinion points the way: get Parliament to pursue a Bill to amend BEE scorecards to award points for capital invested into South Africa’s economy, jobs maintained and newly created, tax raised and paid, and export revenue earned, together with a fifth, voluntary category for funds invested in education, healthcare, and social development projects. The latter could range from providing bursaries to maintaining infrastructure (which a number of private investors are increasingly required to do).

The points earned would serve the same purpose they do now in being one of a series of factors, together with price and experience, considered by the state in determining with which businesses it should do business – in this case ensuring that those committing the most capital, creating the most jobs, and paying the most tax (relative to their peers by turnover and industry) stand near the front of that queue – an unquestionably sound idea. A further step, to be explored, would be to turn points earned into credits that could be traded on a market created for that purpose, much as carbon credits are, thereby ensuring that the value of empowerment points earned might be retained and could even lift in value.

The effect would be to align the interests of South Africa’s people with those of investors in order to lift the investment rate and thereby the growth and job-creation rates. The ‘winners’ would range from millions of ordinary people who find work or otherwise see their living standards and prosperity improve, to South Africa broadly, and likely the ANC itself. The losers would likely number in the hundreds.