Business leaders need to be more courageous in ensuring that the country’s wealth is transferred to more black South Africans, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Courageous leadership must not only come from government,” Radebe told the Black Management Forum’s annual conference in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
He said the structure of South Africa’s economy was still largely reflective of the country’s apartheid past.<\/p>\n
“For example, at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange… they say [in] the first top 100 companies that are listed, about 23% are black – even by that standard, it is still very low.<\/p>\n
“We require a change in terms of ownership patterns, to reflect South African society.”<\/p>\n
The ANC-led government wanted more radical socio-economic transformation to ensure that the country’s wealth was transferred and owned by the people.<\/p>\n
“We need to do more in order to address the disparities of the past, so that even in the higher echelons of business, we see [more] black people,” Radebe said.<\/p>\n
“The issue of economic empowerment, the transfer of assets to black hands [and] the economy as a whole, must reflect the demographics.<\/p>\n
“This is not only an economic necessity, but a political imperative – you see the protests happening in our townships, you see the issues that confront our young people at schools and university [and they] indicate that that we need to move with speed to radically change South African society, especially the economic structure.”<\/p>\n
Growth of the middle class<\/strong><\/p>\n The number of black middle class South Africans had grown from 300 000 in 1994 to about 5 million currently, Radebe said.<\/p>\n He said this was good, but more still needed to be done.<\/p>\n Last week Wednesday, Radebe was booed as he received a memorandum of understanding at an anti-corruption march in Pretoria.<\/p>\n Marchers gesticulated for him to go away.<\/p>\n Some blew whistles, while others rolled their hands – a soccer signal for substitution.<\/p>\n The crowd drowned out Radebe as he tried to address them.<\/p>\n When he started telling them about the National Development Plan (NDP), they started booing and singing.<\/p>\n In response, Radebe told journalists that just as they had the freedom of expression, he had the freedom to convey what government was doing about corruption.<\/p>\n News24<\/a><\/p>\n Number of black CEOs in SA declining<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Why it\u2019s hard to be black in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Black middle class on the rise in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n White vs black unemployment in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on South Africa<\/h3>\n