Phosa - tiff averted?

I have not been posting much over the last few months because I didn't think there was much to talk about - or bitch about which is what I do mostly when it comes to BEE.  On that note I am struggling to find anyone who is actually positive about broad-based or narrow-based BEE, employment equity or anything vaguely empowerment related.

Be that as it may, we still have an issue with the FSC and ownership.  I have nailed my colours firmly to the mast supporting business here because I can't see labour and community's perspective at all.  The saving grace for this process has come in the form of Matthews Phosa who gave a very balanced speech to the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition dinner on Tuesday (no I wasn't there).  It was reported in today's Business Report.

Phosa calls for a cool-headed approach to this impasse.  He suggests that this is about a compromise, not a "winner-takes-all approach that creates long-term tension between the various stakeholders in the financial services industry".   He also drops a few hints about the shape empowerment will probably take under the new government viz:

My own view is that some of the bigger BEE transactions need to be discussed in a more transparent fashion, so that we can all understand exactly how communities and groups really benefit from these deals, if, in some cases, at all.

For me the trick lies in minutely defining how we [the ANC] ensure, as a party and as a government, that the people at the bottom of the wealth pyramid are drawn into productive economic activity.

And MOST significantly

Could banks, for instance, form more creative partnerships with training bodies and labour unions, to develop entrepreneurs and business people in the industry? In that way, we create fisher people and not receivers of fish as social handouts.

I love this stuff - we have been waiting a long time to hear this from the ANC.

The second economy
I posted something on the importance of the second economy about two years ago.  There has been a lot of thought about this economy and the importance of aligning it with the first economy.  Vuyo wrote a very comprehensive piece on the second economy and how it might not suit them to be part of the first economy and opening bank accounts and registering for VAT etc.

He concludes with

On the surface, the benefits of having small black business brought into the formal space of the economy is good for the government in accounting for its delivery, but it may not necessarily be seen by the intended beneficiaries as being good. This also applies to the BEE arena, where the interventions try to bring black people into the mainstream of the economy, but there may be black people who prefer to operate in the second economy.

Ultimately, it should be okay to have two economies in parallel, if that is what people on the ground want, rather than imposing the first economy on them just because the powers that be think it is good for them.

I know through my work with the FSC that the banks have Mzansi targets perhaps it might be an idea to take another look at how these products can meet the needs of the second economy (I can't pretend that I am an expert on this but the fact that these people are not using Mzansi accounts suggests to me that more can be done to get them to make use of them.)

I think the article is a good reflection of the new ANC's way of thinking.  It is a very good article you'd do well to read it.